


All of My Enemies Started Out Friends

by Jarofsunshine



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora (She-Ra) Needs a Hug, Adora (She-Ra) is a Dork, Adora Goes to Therapy (She-Ra), Adora Has Issues (She-Ra), Adora is a Superhero, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Anxious Adora (She-Ra), Catra (She-Ra) Needs a Hug, Catra Goes to Therapy (She-Ra), Catra Has Issues (She-Ra), Childhood Friends, F/F, Friends to Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Gen, Human Catra (She-Ra), Hurt Adora (She-Ra), Hurt/Comfort, Lesbian Adora (She-Ra), Lesbian Catra (She-Ra), Lesbian Disaster Adora (She-Ra), Light Angst, Mentioned Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra), Miscommunication, Other, Past Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Poor Catra (She-Ra), Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra)'s A+ Parenting, Slow Burn, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 59,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26739382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jarofsunshine/pseuds/Jarofsunshine
Summary: After years without contact, Adora is finally able to reconnect with her childhood friend. Only, there are some difficult complications now, such as the fact that she leads a double life as the superhero She ra, fighting forces secretly created by the very company that Catra works for. Navigating the waters of rekindling an old friendship (and possibly developing more than that) is hard enough without the added conflict of risking your life on a daily basis and having to keep secrets about your life.Basically, it's just a She ra Superhero AU.
Relationships: Adora & Angella (She-Ra), Adora & Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora & Mara (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow & Catra (She-Ra), Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Lonnie (She-Ra), Catra & Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 88
Kudos: 226





	1. The Start

She ra lunged into the air, swinging her sword at the enemy in front of her. She had been fighting for nearly twenty minutes. She wasn't sure she could keep up this pace for much longer, but it looked like she didn't really have a choice. Bots continued to surround her, overwhelming her from all sides. She had no idea where they were coming from,

"Am I late?" There was a flash of light, indicating help had arrived. She ra didn't have to look to know who it was, which was helpful because she was a little too occupied to look at the moment.

"Almost. I'm swarmed," she told the pink haired girl as she pushed back an incoming bot.

"On it," the girl confirmed, knocking another bot to the ground.

"Where were you, Glimmer? And where's our archer slash tech master?" A metallic leg slammed into her side. That was going to leave a bruise later.

"Someone interfered with our communicators. We don’t know who did it or how they did it, but Bow is trying to fix them, but the main board was fried." Two more bots flickered off as Glimmer drove the end of her staff into them. "It's just the two of us for now."

"I can work with that. It's nothing that we haven't done before, right?" She glanced around them, assessing their current situation. During the time it took for them to clear the bots long enough to get a second to breathe, they had gathered quite the crowd around them. Great. Publicity and liability. Just what they needed. "There are too many people around here. Someone could easily get hurt." Glimmer nodded in agreement.

"So, what's the plan?" That was the question of the day. She ra surveyed the area, searching the open street for any possible solution. Everywhere was too open, too risky. They needed a closed in space with no people around. Finally, she found one.

"See that alleyway over there?" She nodded her head toward a small space in between two nearby buildings. "Lead them there and corner them off. We'll be able to take out a lot of them at once without risking injury to civilians."

"Roger that."

-

Catra was late. Very late. She didn't know how she had managed to sleep through three different alarms, but she did. Now, she was running twenty minutes behind. What that meant for her was that she didn't have time for a shower, or makeup, or breakfast. No, forget all of that; If she didn't get to work ASAP, she might not have a job anymore. That wasn't happening again. Catra had worked her ass off just to get this job; there was no way she was going to go back to being unemployed after all she had to go through. Letting out a long string of curses, Catra rushed to grab her keys from off the hook and ran out the door. She fumbled with the keys as she frantically tried to lock the door, the adrenaline only making it harder. What she didn't know was that she would be much much later than she could even have anticipated. What she didn't know—

"Watch out!"

—was that there was a robot appendage headed straight for her. She was possibly about to face certain death, and only one thought crossed her mind. So it's going to be one of those kinds of Mondays, huh?

-

"Well, the bots are taken care of," Glimmer said, dusting off her hands on her pants. "Glad that's over. Right, Adora?"

"Yeah. Yeah, the bots are taken care of," Adora breathed out, taking her mask off to wipe the sweat that had gathered beneath it. "But now we have another problem to deal with."

"It's not that big of a deal compared to almost getting obliterated by bots,” Glimmer said, rolling her eyes in dismissal.

"Glimmer, there's an unconscious civilian on the ground! How are you so calm about this?!" Adora yelled, gesturing to said civilian.

"Years of practice. You forget that I’ve been around this stuff my whole life." She knelt down and examined them for any telltale signs of immediate danger. "They'll be fine, I think. No signs of serious injury." Adora sighed in relief. If something had happened, if this person were hurt badly, it would've been her fault since it was her plan to lead the bots here thinking no one would be here. She didn’t think she could handle it if someone got hurt on her watch. Adora knelt down to get a better look at them. Something about their features seemed familiar.

"Wait a minute,” Adora said, leaning in closer. Suddenly, years worth the memories from her early childhood flooded her mind. "I know her."

"You do?" Glimmer asked. Adora nodded.

"Yeah. It's Catra." What would Catra be doing on this side of town, Adora wondered.

"Catra as in the chick you used to have a crush on?" Glimmer inquired with suggestive eyebrows. Adora scoffed.

"For the last time, I did not have a crush on her! She was my best friend. That's it!"

"Sure, Adora. Keep telling yourself that,” Glimmer snickered.

"Seriously! I—" The civilian moved slightly and let out a small groan. Adora huffed, slipping her mask back on. "We'll continue this conversation later."

"Oh, I'm looking forward to it." Glimmer remarked sarcastically.

-

Catra's head reeled like no Advil could fix. What the hell happened? The last thing she remembered was locking her door when something hit her— like, literally hit her. She held her head and groaned as she sat up. She was greeted by the sight of a bright blond and a pink-haired punk, both in masks that covered their eyes, kneeling over her.

"How are you feeling?" The blonde asked her.

"Just peachy." Catra hissed out. Catra glanced around her and looked the two people kneeling over her up and down. "Hold up. Are you two those supposed superheroes? Her ra and Sparkles or something like that?"

"Well, it's actually She ra and nameless sidekick—" The blond sent a sharp look to the other girl. "But, yeah. That's us."

“Shouldn’t you be fighting bad guys or something?” Catra remarked.

“Well, we were just a second ago. You were hit by a bot leg during the fight.” So that’s what hit her and gave her the killer headache.

"Okay. Well, as much fun as this has been, I'm super late for work and not really in the mood to be fired so if you could—" Catra attempted to get up to leave, but she tripped and fell on her way up. Luckily, a pair of muscular arms caught her before she could hit the ground again.

"Woah! Easy there," She ra said, hoisting her up and carrying her over to her apartment steps where she gently set her down. "Maybe you should take it easy before doing anything. Do you need some water?" She took out a bottle from a pack on her hip and offered it to Catra. Catra smacked her hands away angrily.

"I don't need water! I need a job, which I won't have if you don't let me go!" She yelled at her. Granted, it probably wasn’t the best idea to yell at a superhero, much less one that just saved you ass, but she couldn’t risk losing her job right now.

“Look, I can’t keep you here against your will, but I really don’t think it’s safe for you to go anywhere right now. I mean, you got hit by a bot leg and knocked unconscious,” She ra said to her with a look of both concern and understanding on her face. She really was the image of a public heroine, wasn’t she?

"Where do you work? I'll get it sorted out for you," the pink one said, pulling out her phone and beginning to press buttons..

"I doubt you'll be able to do anything, but I work as customer support at Horde Prime." She didn’t miss the look the two masked girls gave each other when she said the name. “Yeah, I know they aren’t exactly the best. You don’t have to say anything.” Most everyone knew that Horde Prime industries, or the Horde as it was commonly called, was a pretty sketchy business. They had done some pretty questionable things in the past and had plenty of lawsuits from former employees and customers that conveniently disappeared soon after they were made. She especially knew how customers were constantly ripped off and cheated, working in customer support. Catra knew all of this, but she couldn’t really be bothered to care. Yeah, her job and the people she worked for might suck, but it was what it took to keep a roof over her head and food on the table.

"I'll see what I can do," she said dryly, stepping away to make a phone call, leaving the other two girls alone. Catra studied She ra’s face. She felt like she knew that face, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. It was far too familiar a face for Catra to have just seen her in the headlines a couple of times. It reminded her of something, or someone.

"Do I know you from somewhere? Like, other than the news and stuff?" She ra’s breath hitched and she shook her head violently.

"Uh, nope! Definitely not!" Her voice was pitched at least three octaves higher than it had been a moment ago. She was obviously being overly defensive, but Catra chose to leave it alone. "Would you be comfortable enough lifting your shirt? Just a little bit?" She ra whispered after a brief silence.

"Excuse me?!" Catra shrieked. She ra immediately backtracked, waving her hands around in front of her defensively.

"No! Not like that! I want to check for any substantial injuries,” She said in a slightly panicked tone. "I swear I would never say that in any other way!"

"Guess I'm the lucky girl then," Catra teased, sending a smirk towards the blonde. A blush spread across her face from under her mask. Catra laughed at her. "I'm messing with you. Go ahead." Still very flustered, She ra quietly moved forward and rolled up her shirt to expose her torso. It was Catra’s turn to blush when calloused fingers ran over her skin. An extremely pretty and muscular heroine was touching her. No big deal.

“There’s a small bruise from where you hit the ground,” She noted, tugging Catra’s shirt back down and backing away.“Other than that, there’s nothing noticeable.”

“Thanks, I guess. For making sure I was okay,” Catra thanked her, shrugging off the awkwardness.

“Just doing my job,” she said with a bright, flashy smile. Catra smiled back, more or less just to be polite. The pink one huffed as she came around the corner, returning to them at the steps.

“So, I made a few calls, got in touch with some contacts, and got you a paid day off. You can just take it easy today,” she proclaimed, holding up her phone like a trophy. Catra gaped at her.

“How the hell did you manage to do that?” Barely anyone got paid leave at the Horde, especially someone in as low of a position as her.

“Let’s just say I know people, and leave it at that,” she shot back with a mischievous wink. She handed Catra a small slip of paper with scribbled numbers on it. “Call this number if you start to experience any stronger symptoms. It could be a sign of something else.”

“Thanks,” Catra said, taking the slip and shoving it in her pocket. “You really didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes I did. Miss I-have-a-duty wouldn’t tolerate it any other way.” She pointed over to the blonde. The blonde responded with a scoff and roll of her eyes. Suddenly, the bands on their wrists lit up. “We’ve gotta bounce.” Adora nodded at her, and then turned to Catra.

“Take it easy, okay. You shouldn’t go back to work unless you’re feeling better,” She told her with that same flashy smile.

“Got it, Princess.” Catra gave her a mock salute and a smirk.

“Good. See you around.” They took off, running out of the alley and down the street. Where they were going, Catra had no clue. What she did know was that her head hurt like hell, and that she could really use a solid nap right now since she had the day off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy reading this!! I was actually really exited to write this one, so I'm going to try to be serious about it. I'm going to try to post a new chapter every week, but school may get in the way of that.


	2. Familiar

“‘See you around’? Really, Adora?” Glimmer teased, nudging Adora with her elbow. “You happen to run into a girl you had the hots for in seventh grade and haven’t seen in forever while you're She ra, and you choose to say ‘see you around’?” She let out a high-pitched laugh.

“Okay, first of all, I did not have a crush on my best friend, for the fiftieth time!” Adora huffed. “Secondly, I realize that ‘see you around’ might not have been the best choice of words, but what was I supposed to say?”

“Not that,” Glimmer snickered.

“Whatever,” Adora folded her arms and pouted. “It’s over now. Chances are I’m either never going to see her again, or I’m only going to see her in passing and won’t be able to say anything to her.”

“Never say never. There’s still a chance that you could see her again. Maybe next time you won’t be busy trying to make sure no one’s dying. I mean we do know where she works now,” Glimmer reminded her.

“Oh, yeah. We do know where she works.” Adora had completely forgotten about that part. She knew where Catra worked, meaning she could go see her, or at least make sure she was okay, if she really wanted.

“Uh, guys?” Bow called out from the computer, gesturing the girls over to him. “You’re going to want to take a look at this.” The other two ran over to him and looked at the screen. He had been rewatching footage to find out what happened with their communicators.

“Bow, we have no idea what we’re supposed to be looking at. Care to elaborate?” Glimmer said. Bow clicked a couple of times and the footage became more clear. A hooded figure used a keycard to enter the control room and tampered with the board.

“The board was fried by someone with access to our control room,” Bow explained further. “It’s hard to tell exactly who did it, but it was definitely an inside job.”

“So, we’ve got a mole on our hands,” Adora sighed, staring at the figure on the screen. “Great. Just what we needed.”

-

Catra grumbled at the bright sun peeking through her window. Her head didn’t hurt quite as bad as it did earlier, but the light was still annoying to wake up to. It definitely wasn’t that bright when she had first laid down. She blindly felt around her on the bed for her phone to check the time. 1:45. Did she really sleep that long? Apparently, she had missed a lot during her nap, considering she had three missed calls and eight unread messages, most of which were from her roommate and co-worker, Scorpia. She’d have to call her back once she actually got up. Which she should probably do now. Catra groggily got out of the bed and headed for the kitchen.

Catra never kept around much food, both because she couldn’t exactly afford it and because she was rarely home for meals. Most of the food in the fridge and pantry belonged to Scorpia, although Scorpia would argue that they shared it. Catra didn’t subscribe to that ‘what’s mine is yours bullshit. She scanned the shelves of the fridge until she saw the styrofoam container on the bottom. Three day old leftovers weren’t an ideal lunch, but it was what was there and it needed to be eaten. She grabbed a fork from the drawer and took her food back to her room. Once she had gotten comfortably settled back on her bed with her container of cold food, she pressed the call button on Scorpia’s contact. After a couple of rings, she picked up.

“Hey, Wildcat! Are you okay?” She asked as soon as the call connected.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Ran into some trouble this morning, so that’s why I’m not at work,” Catra offered a shortened (very shortened) explanation.

“Well, I knew that. We got a call this morning that said you got caught up in that fight that happened this morning.” 

“Who called?”

“The hospital, I think. I don’t know a hundred percent because the call was directed straight to Hordak. Somehow, whoever it was convinced him to give you paid time off.” I guess sparkles did have some good connections, Catra thought to herself. Good for her. And, for me too, I guess. “Anyways, I just wanted to make sure you were okay and that you were taking care of yourself. Have you eaten?”

“Yeah. I’m eating right now.” A short beat of silence passed before Catra cleared her throat and spoke up. “Thanks for checking in on me,” she muttered quietly into her phone.

“Of course, Wildcat. I just got off, so I’ll be home soon and you can tell me all about it, okay?”

“Okay, Scorpia. See you then.”

“See you then! Bye, Wildcat!” The phone beeped, signaling that the call had ended.

Catra decided to spend her time before Scorpia arrived home mindlessly scrolling through her social media as she ate her cold leftovers, as one does. She saw a lot of the same stuff as she always did. This person got married. The same copied meme ten times in a row. Sucky world news. That couple broke up, but are now back together again. Whatever is the latest topic with some hot celebrity. More memes. Then, she started seeing posts about local news, covering the heroine that had gotten her the day off and the bot attack that caused her to get knocked out in the first place. Catra clicked on an article link, figuring she might as well learn about the thing that could have killed her. Catra had never really paid attention to these events before, mainly because they were so common these days, or at least they were where Catra lived. Now that she was actually reading a news article about it, she realized how absurd it sounded. Certain neighborhoods are frequently invaded and attacked by a bunch of robots, only for a tall, blonde, muscular heroine and one or both of her sidekicks to step in and fight them off, saving the day. It sounded ridiculous, like something straight from a comic book written by a fourteen year old. It was just Catra’s luck to get stuck in this crazy reality. She tapped on the picture zooming in on She ra’s face. It was hard to tell with a mask covering half of her face, but Catra swore that she looked familiar. Specifically, her bright smile was what set Catra off so much. Something in Catra’s gut tugged, trying to recall buried memories with that same bright smile in them. She was a public figure; she probably used that smile a lot. Still, it just seemed too recognizable to Catra to just be a hunch or a coincidence.

-

Adora slid down the door of her empty apartment as soon as she closed it. She had been trying to ignore the pain and tiredness all day, but the adrenaline had long worn off by now and it was all beginning to take its toll on her. She was exhausted, both mentally and physically. She was tempted to just fall asleep here on the floor, but she knew she couldn’t. As much as she wished she could just pass out, she really needed to take a shower. The sweat and grime from today’s battle stuck uncomfortably to her skin, and she was sure she had at least a few nasty scrapes that needed cleaning here and there. Begrudgingly, she rose up and trudged her way into the bathroom, stipping off her socks and shoes as she went. She could immediately tell where all of the cuts were the moment the steamy hot water hit her skin, the stinging on her arms and legs reminding her every time she moved. Eventually, though, she got used to the feeling and was able to continue on with her shower without much of an issue. After all, this much was routine.

Now that Adora had the time to think, she felt her mind wandering back to the incident that morning, and, specifically, she felt her mind wandering back to Catra and the old memories that came with her. Her and Catra had a long history together, both good and bad. They had been the best of friends in their childhood, both of them placed under care of the same woman and growing up together. Miss Weaver wasn’t exactly the best guardian. She had strict rules for the children and harsh punishments for anyone who broke them. She never really gave the luxury of choice. Everything had to be her way or there would be a hefty price to pay. Miss Weaver was also extremely frugal, so the kids never got much. Most of the time, they had to make do with hand-me-downs and cheap donated or thrifted clothing. Food was handed out like rations, usually in small portions. She had also taken an odd liking to Adora, one that people often commented bordered on obsession when Adora talked about it. It was the most ideal situation to grow up in, but as long as Adora and Catra had each other, they knew they’d be fine. Eventually, Shadow Weaver was caught in her mistreatment and abuse, along with some other money related charges that Adora couldn’t remember, and she was locked away. Of course, that meant the kids under her care were sent to new homes. Catra and Adora were separated. Adora was adopted not long after that, but she had no way of contacting Catra, so they lost touch. The last time Adora had seen Catra before this morning was at some party Glimmer had dragged her to at the start of her senior year.

-  
_  
The feeling of a cold, refreshing breeze sent a wave of relief over Adora. After spending the past hour and a half talking over unbearably loud music to people that she didn’t know through the thick haze of smoke, Adora desperately needed some fresh air. In all honesty, Adora would much rather be at home in her pajamas, rewatching some cheesy rom-com movie, but Glimmer had been so excited to go to this party, and she wasn’t allowed to go unless someone went with her. Bow couldn't go with her. because he had taken a short trip with his dads before the school year started, so that left Adora, who couldn’t say no to save her life. It wasn’t Adora’s scene at all, with all of the different lights and sounds and smells overwhelming her senses, but she figured she could put up with it for a couple of hours for Glimmer’s sake. What would most likely happen is she would spend the remainder of the party outside, maybe updating and organizing her schedule on her phone or writing a log in her journal app, and Glimmer would come grab her when the party was over. She was fine with that. She took her earbuds out of her pocket, intending to play calm music to drown out the bass from the music in the building behind her. That was when she saw her._

_“Catra?” The girl looked up from her phone screen, showing her face and confirming Adora’s guess. Adora excitedly ran up to her. “Oh my gosh! Catra, I haven’t seen you in forever!”_

_“Who-” Catra was about to ask, but cut herself off when Adora was close enough to recognize. “Adora?” She didn’t sound excited or shocked like Adora had, but Adora didn’t take much notice of her less than impressed tone._

_“Yeah! How have you been? I’ve missed you,” She said, because she really had missed her._

_“Yeah, sure you have,” Catra scoffed, ignoring Adora’s question and returning her attention to her phone. A beat of silence fell between the two of them as Adora stood there awkwardly._

_“So, what brings you here?” She spoke up again, eager to break the tension._

_“I don’t know. Why do people usually go to parties?” Catra snarked back._

_“Yeah, sorry. That was a stupid question.” Adora retreaded into herself, shrinking down and biting her lip out of impulse. She had just wanted to reconnect with her old friend, because she really did miss her a lot, but she had ended up just making a huge fool of herself._

_“No kidding.” Catra huffed and rolled her eyes when she saw Adora still standing there, nervously biting her lip. “My foster sister actually brought me here. She didn’t want to walk home alone at night, which is totally understandable, and I had nothing better to do, so I thought why the hell not?”_

_“Yeah, I get that. My friend, Glimmer, wasn’t allowed out unless she had a plus one, so here I am.” “Do you have a phone now? We could exchange numbers or-”_

_“Can you not take a hint,” Catra deadpanned, her words suddenly dripping with a venom that wasn’t present a moment before. “I don’t want your fucking number, Adora.”_

_“W-what?” Adora didn’t understand the sudden aggression and hostility coming from Catra. She tried retracing her steps, going over their conversation in her mind for something she might have said to upset Catra._

_“I said I don’t want your fucking number. You can just save it for one of your other prissy new friends,” Catra growled, her vice increasing in volume with every rage filled word._

_“Catra, what’s wrong? What did I do?” Adora asked, desperately clueless._

_“Are you seriously asking that?!” Catra spat. She turned away and started to storm off, but Adora grabbed her wrist, not too harshly, but tight enough to let Catra know that she wasn’t going anywhere._

_“Catra, please. Tell me what I did so I can fix it.” Adora was pleading. She didn’t have the slightest idea what she had done to make Catra so angry with her, but she was willing to do whatever she needed to make it right._

_“You know, I would, but I don’t think you can fix it. In fact, I don’t think you want to fix it if you don’t already know what it is.” Catra's eyes showed no trace of the warmth that Adora remembered from her childhood. Instead, they were filled with a strong hatred and disgust, all aimed at Adora._

_“How am I supposed to know if you don’t tell me? Please, Catra,” Adora begged. Catra opened her mouth, probably to shoot back another spiteful rebuttal, but she was cut off by the door swinging open._

_“Adora!” Glimmer called, poking her head outside. She noticed her standing with Catra and quickly ran over to them. “Mara called and said she’s coming to pick us up. She said she’d be here in a few minutes. Are you ready to go?” Adora looked between Catra and Glimmer, torn on what she was supposed to do at that moment._

_“Go on, Adora. Leave. That’s what you’re good at, isn’t it?” Catra laughed sarcastically._

_“Catra what—” Catra put a hand up and shook her head._

_“Just go. Take a hint for once in your life. I don’t want to talk to you.” Adora wanted to say more, needed to say more, but Catra yanked her arm away from Adora and sprinted away before she could speak a word. Adora was left standing there, frozen in shock and confusion._

_“Geez. What was her problem?” Glimmer commented. “C’mon Adora. Let’s get out of here.”_

_“Y— Yeah. Let’s go.” Glimmer took hold of her hand and dragged her out to the other side of the building, where Mara was waiting for them. Glimmer and Mara had questioned her about Catra and her sour mood on the ride home, but Adora kept answers short, usually only responding with a nod or a shrug. She never found out why Catra was so upset with her, but it was something that plagued her mind for years after that night._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been so exited to post another chapter, and now I've done it! I may have gotten a little ahead of myself though, because now I have 3 chapters completed in advance...
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thank you for reading!


	3. Collision

Catra was watching some T.V. in the living room when her roommate arrived home. Scorpia had practically tackled Catra the moment she walked through the door, crying something sappy about being glad she was okay. However, that was over quickly (much to Catra’s pleasure), as Scorpia was eager for all of the details on Catra’s unfortunate run in with the bot attack, and, more importantly, She ra.

"What was she like?" Scorpia had asked, bouncing on the couch.

"Just like you'd expect a hero like that to be," Catra replied nonchalantly. "Her smile was way too bright to be natural and she kept spotting a bunch of annoying nonsense about duty.”

"Oh, come on, wildcat! Most people would be thrilled to meet the legendary She ra, Etheria’s great protector!" Scorpia said, nudging her.

"Yeah, well, I'm not most people." Catra rolled her eyes. Legendary seemed like a loose term to her, considering how the blonde seemed to stumble around how to talk and act when Catra had met her. Plus, legendary people usually were universally known or something like that. She ra was barely a household name in Etheria. "I had barely even heard her name until today."

"That's just because you don't pay attention to local news,” Scorpia noted. “These things happen multiple times a week, especially around here. That's why I always tell you to be careful when you leave the house."

"Well, excuse me if I have more pressing matters to take care of than reading about some tall, muscular, masked princess,” Catra scoffed. Unlike everyone who swooned over She ra, Catra would not be swayed by the hussy heroine, no matter how bright her smile was or how ripped she was or how— "So has anyone seen her face without that stupid mask on?" Scorpia cocked her head, having her curiosity piqued.

"No. Why, did you?" Catra immediately regretted mentioning it after seeing Scorpia giving her that look.

"No. Her face just looked familiar. It's kind of been irking me all day." That face. That stupid face. She didn’t even see all of it, so why was it bothering her so much?

"Well, you could always do some digging, try to find out who she is. You know, investigate,” Scorpia suggested, gesturing to the phone in Catra’s hand. That wasn’t a bed idea, actually. Plenty of people were already working to uncover her identity. The difference between them and Catra, though, is that Catra had immeasurable wit and a spiteful determination on her side. Plus, she had actually seen the girl up close, and, remembering the number that she had been given, still had a way to possibly contact her.

"I think I will, Scorpia." Catra had never been one for hobbies, but something told her that this one might actually stick. She would find out where exactly she knew the girl behind She ra from if it killed her. Thus marks the start of her quest to unmask She ra.

-

Angella, CEO of Moon Industries, paced the floor. After they had informed her that there had been a breach in security, she had called an emergency meeting. Just for safe measure, only her, her husband, and the three that had been affected were allowed in. If there really was a spy in their midst, they couldn’t risk letting anyone else overhear until the mole was caught.

“You mean to tell me,” Angella started, halting her pacing briefly to take a sip of water. “That there is a Horde employee posing as one of Moon Industries’ employees, one of my well-respected higher tier employees at that, so that they can lazily sabotage your system of communication.”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Bow nodded, handing Angella the tablet with the footage pulled up on it. Angella sat down with the tablet, rubbing her temples as she stared at the screen.

“I mean, it is a plausible story. I was only hoping I’d have better judgement and security than that. If I allowed something like that to happen right under my nose, what’s stopping it from happening again? The Horde could destroy my company or put my daughter and her friends in danger, and I wouldn’t have a clue!” They all shared looks with each other. It was a possibility that, if the saboteur was not caught, the next time they strike could lead to a dangerous or even deadly mishap.

“Your judgement is just fine, Angie,” Micah assured her, calmly rubbing her back and shoulders. “It could be as simple as someone stealing a keycard. Even if it isn’t, it’s not your fault that someone managed to get by. You know the Horde is sneaky and sleazy like that.”

“Yes, they truly are.” Angella rubbed her temples, as if it could rub the stress away. “Still, we can’t let this happen again. It’s dangerous for you three to continue fighting with a threat like that in our midst. What will be our plan moving forward?”

“May I make a suggestion, Ma’am?” Adora spoke up, stepping forward. Adora, who always made sure to think one step ahead, had been formulating a plan since she saw the footage and had been re-running it through her head the whole meeting.

“What did you have in mind, Adora?” Angella asked with raised eyebrows. Adora told them her plan, going into as much detail as she could, and the plan was agreed upon.

-

Catra hated her job. It was full of dealing with a bunch of angry people who demanded things that she had no control over. People would come in with a complaint, yell at her when she couldn't change anything, and then storm out with the promise of a lawsuit. It never failed. If she had more credentials, maybe she could have gotten a better job. Sadly, she was stuck worth whatever a high school diploma could get her, which, in this economy, wasn't much.

"Hey, Catra. Heard you got tangled in some She ra business yesterday," Lonnie said as she slid over to Catra’s work area.

"Yeah. What about it?" Catra questioned dryly. She was tired and agitated, definitely not in the mood to talk about yesterday with her co-worker.

"Was she as hot and mysterious as they say she is?" Lonnie winked and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"No," Catra hissed. "She was a fucking idiot with more awkwardness than a preteen with a pimple at their first school dance.” Catra recalled her encounter with She ra, remembering how tensed up she was and the jittery movements with her hands, and how her eyes never locked into Catra's for too long. She also remembered the last words She ra had said before taking off. 'See you later' isn't exactly a farewell reserved for strangers, especially in a situation like that.

“Geez. Harsh words, Catra. It was just a question.” That’s what she said, but her cheeky smirk showed that she knew it wasn’t.

“Shut it, Lonnie. Just do your job and I’ll do mine.” Luckily, a customer stormed up to them before Lonnie could drag her into any more of that conversation.

-

Adora kept her head down as she walked into the headquarters of Horde Prime. She shouldn’t be here right now. This was the equivalent of crossing over enemy lines in battle. It was risky and dangerous. Yet, she still found herself brushing past busy Horde employees as she took in the interior of the building. Everything, from the structure down to the decorating, was utilitarian. It didn’t look like a welcoming environment for the customers or a comfortable working environment for the employees. Though Adora supposed that none of that mattered when you were as rich of a company as the Horde was. Just to restate, she most definitely should not be here, but ,after Glimmer reminded her that they knew where Catra worked, Adora couldn’t stop herself. She knew Catra likely wouldn’t want to see her or talk to her, if their last interaction was any indication, but Adora just had to make sure she’s okay. If she was able to mix a little bit of work while doing that, she didn’t see a problem. Her plan was simple, really. She just needed to go up to the customer support desk, present a problem with the Horde tech that she bugged, ask to return it, and look around for Catra while the employee takes care of that. Very simple, right? Well, as it turns out, it doesn’t matter how simple your plan is if you panic and take a detour through one of the side doors back outside.

"Are you lost?" Adora jumped at the unexpected voice. She turned around to see a Horde employee staring at her. It wasn't just any Horde employee, though. It was Catra.

"H— huh?" Adora stuttered, frozen in place. Luckily, Catra wasn’t looking directly at her. She was leaning over the thin, rusty railing and staring at her feet.

"This is the employee only area. Did you get lost or something?" Catra pointed at a sign next to the door that confirmed what she said without looking at Adora.

"Oh. I guess I must have. I've never been here before." Adora weighed the options of running away now versus actually going through this awful, awkward conversation. One one hand, if she left right now, she probably wouldn’t have to face her former friend for a little while, or at least until they next stumbled across each other. On the other hand, she had already come this far and committed to it. She would have to face her at some point. She might as well go through with it now rather than later.

"Obviously. Give me, like, one more minute and I'll help you find whatever you need,” Catra sighed, leaning away from the railing.

"Thanks,” Adora muttered, shifting awkwardly as she prepared herself for the inevitable.

"Don't mention—” Catra froze up and did a double take once she got a look at Adora’s face. “Adora?” She asked, the color draining from her face as if she had seen a ghost.

“Hey, Catra,” Adora said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. She had taken down five foot bots before, yet, the look Catra gave her diminished every ounce of courage she had. Suddenly, this brave heroine felt like fleeing. “I’m sorry. I know you probably never wanted to see me again. I’ll just go.”

“No, no. Stay,” Catra sighed, gesturing towards adora with one hand and rubbing her temple with the other. “I should probably be the one apologizing to you.”

“Why would you need to apologize to me?” Adora asked with furrowed brows. Last she remembered, Adora had been the one to do something to upset Catra.

“I was a bitch the last time I saw you. You didn’t deserve that.” Catra averted her gaze, choosing to focus her eyes on kicking the small rocks under her feet shamefully.

“I’m sure you had your reasons. I’m sorry for whatever I did, and I hope that I can fix it,” Adora said with a sad little smile and a shrug.

“You didn’t—” Catra started to raise her voice, but cut herself off with a calming breath. “Listen, there’s a lot to unpack here. I have to get back to work soon, but maybe we could get together to talk some time.”

“I’d like that.” Adora smiled, hoping that her cheeks only felt warm from the summer heat and not because of a painfully obvious blush. Her wristlet beeped, tearing her away from her trance. Another bot attack, not too far away from where she was. Frantically, she pulled out a pen and an old gum wrapper from her pocket, scribbling down her phone number and handing it to Catra. “Uh, here’s my number. Just let me know whenever you’re free.”

“Sure thing.” Catra nodded at her as she opened the door. “Didn’t you have something you needed to do here?” Oh, yeah. She forgot about the boxes that were still tucked under her arm. Her plan.

“I’ll take care of it later. An emergency just came up.” Adora didn’t give any more of an explanation. She didn’t have time to. Those couple of words would just have to do. Right now, she had a job to do.

-

“I’m here! What have I missed?” Adora called, running up to where Bow and Glimmer were fighting. She was out of breath from having to run from Horde headquarters to here and do a quick change into her She ra outfit.

“Not much. We just got here from another attack across town,” Bow told her, shooting down a bot behind her. “They’re getting smarter about their strategies.”

“And, yet, we still can’t figure out their end goals in all this,” Glimmer grunted, struggling to hold off a group of determined bots. She blasted them with a large ball of light, sending them flying back in a heap of sparkles and electrical sparks. “What are they gaining by all this? They're just hurting these innocent communities that they target!”

“We’ll figure it out eventually,” Bow said to her. “Right now, we need to focus on making sure no one gets hurt. There’s too many of them to herd, and fighting out in the open is a risk for us and the people around us. What do we do?” Adora focused as hard as she could while slashing open bots with her sword. None of her usual plans would work in this situation. What would Mara do if she were here? Mara would probably keep her cool, Adora reminded herself. She took a calm, leveling breath, as good of one as she could while fighting, and searched for a solution. Nothing they typically did was an option, there wasn’t much they could do while they were being bombarded and overpowered, and they were severely outnumbered. Adora had to admit it: they needed help.

“We can’t stay in combat like this forever. I think we should call in backup for the first time.” She nodded over to Bow, who was already stepping in between the other two for a makeshift protection circle.

“Done and done,” Bow said, quickly tapping his wristlet a couple of times. “Help is on the way.”

“Uh, She ra? Look to your left.” She looked over to where glimmer had gestures and saw—

“Oh no.” Catra was standing right in front of a bot. The bot charged up, electric static building up around it. “Catra!”

“Wait! Don’t-” One of her friends called out to her, but it was no use. Without any prior thinking or hesitation, Adora sprinted towards the bot and threw herself in between it and Catra. The bot fired, hitting Adora’s abdomen and sending them both tumbling to the ground.

“Are you okay?” Adora asked, righting herself and offering out a hand to help Catra up. She took the hand, using it to pull herself up, and dusted herself off.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think so.” Her eyes shot to the tattered, slightly blood-soaked cloth covering Adora’s abdomen and hissed sympathetically. “Ouch. That looks rough. You okay?” Adora looked down to observe the damage. It definitely hurt, but it looked better than previous injuries she’s had before.

“I’ll be fine. I’ve had worse,” She said, putting on her signature bright smile despite the incredible amount of pain that she was in. Catra gave her an odd look, then shrugged.

“If you say so, mighty She ra.” She shook her head and smirked. A loud crash sounded from behind them and a metal leg was thrown to the side. Their help, otherwise known in the media as ‘the princesses’ had shown up, and the number of bots was already diminishing quickly. That was good timing, Adora thought, because she didn’t think she could have lasted much longer. She went to say something else to Catra, but when she looked up the girl had already disappeared.

-

"I can't believe you did that!" Glimmer screamed, helping Adora, who was half leaning on her while they walked, into a chair.

"What was I supposed to do?! Just let an innocent person get hurt in my place!" Adora argued back, carefully leaning back in her seat, holding her side uncomfortably.

"What you did was a risky move, Adora, and you know it,” Bow scolded.

"But I'm fine!" Adora rolled her eyes, but she was given away by the wince she made when she changed position in her seat.

"You're bleeding!" Glimmer yelled pointing at her obvious injury showing through her bloodied outfit.

"But I'm not dead!" Adora yelled back defensively.

"That cannot be where the bar is, Adora." Bow shook his head sadly, handing her a glass of water.

"I came as soon as I heard." Angella said, marching into the room and over to Adora's chair with Micah trailing behind her.

"Mrs. Angella, ma'am, it's really nothing to worry about." Angella held up a silencing hand and Adora shut her mouth. Anything she said from this point on would be rendered useless.

"Micah will see to it. However, I'm not so much concerned about your physical wond than I am the reason you got it," The woman said, giving her a pointed look.

"What do you mean? I got it from saving a civilian." Adora dismissed, inhaling sharply at the end of her statement when Dr. Micah prodded at her stomach with a little too much pressure.

"That's not what I meant, Adora." She looked over to Glimmer and Bow nodding for them to leave the room with Micah. Once they were gone, Angella kneeled down to meet Adora’s eye level. "Adora, you can't keep taking hits for other people like this." Adora straightened her back, forcing herself to sit uncomfortably rigid despite her injury. Angella was her friend’s mother, and she had known Adora since Mara had adopted her, but that didn’t change the fact that Angella was her boss first and foremost.

"I only take hits when it's necessary in order to protect, ma'am. I would never be reckless enough to do so otherwise." Adora took her job very seriously. She knows that she can’t be reckless, knows she has a responsibility. However, she refuses to stand by when an innocent person is in danger. In that, she is unmoving. Angella knows that, which is why she sighs and shakes her head.

"You still need to be more careful,” She says, somewhere in between requesting and demanding. "I know you're pushing yourself. As your boss, and as someone who cares for you deeply, I need you to start taking care of yourself, not just others. Can you do that?" Angella smiled at her. It was the same motherly, hopeful smile she had given her a thousand times before, the one Adora couldn’t turn away from.

"Yes, ma'am,” Adora agreed with a defeated nod. Angella’s smile brightened.

"Thank you, Adora. Mara would be so proud of you." Adora hoped that Mara would be proud of her if she were here. She missed her cousin and former guardian and only ever wished to live up to her legacy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thank you to everyone who been supporting this story!
> 
> (BTW, none of my chapters are proof read by me or anyone else, so there may be some errors sometimes.)


	4. Reunion

All of the most trusted employees and advisors of Moon Industries sat gathered around the large meeting table. Even before the meeting started, tension hung in the air throughout the room. Usually, there was chatting and greeting and shared laughs before a meeting, but everyone was unusually quiet today, especially Angella. The company head was seated at the front of the table with folded hands and a stern, serious look. When it did come time to start, everyone was already seated and waiting anxiously.

“I think it is time to start,” She said, her tone immediately catching the attention of anyone who wasn’t already staring at her expectantly. “It has come to my attention that we have a crisis on our hands. Somehow, classified information is escaping these walls and falling into the Horde’s hands.” She surveyed the room for everyone’s reactions before she continued. “Now, I don’t require any of you to keep my secrets; however, the leaked information includes things that I have not shared with most of the people in this room, which means that someone is purposefully sneaking information that they have no authority to know, or one of the few people I have entrusted this information to have betrayed me.” The room remained quiet as no one dared speak an incriminating word. There were a few suspicious looks and doubtful glances, but nothing else. Angella eyed them all from the end of the table. It became evident that no one was daring to speak up, so Adora took matters into her own hands.

“Ma’am?” Adora spoke up, raising her hand and standing up to address her. “Excuse me for saying so, but we can’t halt everything else because of some possible accusation with little evidence. We have to keep moving forward. If whoever it is tries to target us again, we’ll likely have more evidence if we carry on than if we shut everything down.”

“Of course.” Angella nodded and Adora sat back down. “Then, I suppose we’ll have to continue on with business as usual until more evidence surfaces.” She continued on with all of the usual important matters. It was a dangerous game, possibly revealing more information to a room with a confirmed traitor in it. To anyone else, it might be seen as a huge risk and a rather stupid decision. But, they knew exactly what they were doing. The rest of the meeting went rather smoothly, aside from the tense atmosphere and threat hanging over their heads. Soon, everything had been covered and the meeting was dismissed. All of the employees split off, forming small groups to exchange pleasantries and share goodbyes. All except for one. One of the employees slipped out the door, just as Adora thought they would. They probably thought that they were being sneaky, smart even, when they ducked into an empty storage room and pulled out their phone. In reality, Adora had thought of that first, so security was already waiting for them in the room when they got there.

“I’m impressed. I really thought I had you there,” they said over their shoulder as they were being escorted out. “The staged meeting was really a genius idea. Bravo!”

“Glad that’s taken care of,” Glimmer mumbled, turning her back on the scene. Adora’s phone buzzed in her pocket making her jump slightly in surprise. “Who’s that?” Adora pulled the phone from her pocket and held it up. There, in the notifications bar, was something Adora definitely wasn’t expecting.

“It— It’s Catra.” She stared down at the text notification. _Hey, it's Catra. Would you maybe want to get lunch with me tomorrow?_ Adora had given away her number in hopes that Catra would want to text her, but actually seeing Catra's name light up on her screen, asking her out to lunch, was a whole other level of pleasant surprise.

“What? How did she get your number?” Glimmer looked over Adora’s shoulder at the text. Adora shrugged sheepishly.

“I might have given it to her.” Glimmer glared at her accusingly. “I might have gone to her work—”

“You stepped foot into the Horde’s HQ!” Glimmer screamed. Adora ignored her and continued.

“—and by the time I ran into her, it was too late to back out. We talked and she said that she wanted to meet up sometime and talk, so I gave her my number.” She wasn’t even going to turn around

“You are such a gay disaster, Adora,” Glimmer sighed, shaking her head.

“Yeah,” Adora sighed, biting her lip as she stared down at the message once more. “I know.”

-

“I think I made a huge mistake, Scorpia,” Catra said, tapping her nails against her phone case as she waited for Adora's reply. “Why did I ever think this was a good idea?”

“Oh, come on, wildcat! Don’t talk like that!” Scorpia encouraged, putting a reassuring arm around Catra’s shoulders. “I mean, all you did was ask her to lunch. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Nope. Too late. I’ve already signed my death certificate. Wish me well at my funeral.” Catra was done for. She knew she was done for. If this didn’t kill her, she was just going to have to fake her death and move away. Far, far away. Some place where she would never have to face Adora again. Usually, Catra wouldn’t be this dramatic, especially about pissing someone off. Catra usually considered pissing people off an art, but this was different. This was Adora.

“I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Scorpia assured her once more, ever the optimist. However, Catra was having none of her optimism today.

“The last time I saw her before yesterday, I basically told her to go fuck herself,” Catra deadpanned.

“Okay. That is kind of bad,” Scorpia admitted quietly. “But, I’m sure it’s not as big of a deal as you think. I mean, she didn’t seem angry when you guys talked, right?”

“No, but you don’t know Adora like I do. I grew up with her. She’s not the type to talk shit, especially in front of your face. If she was angry, she wouldn’t show it. She could probably hate me right now, and she still wouldn’t say a word. In fact, I’m pretty sure she does hate me.” She wasn’t wrong. She grew up with Adora, so she knew that the girl was way too nice to talk shit to somebody in front of them, or at all for that matter. Adora was more likely to hold her grudges out of sight. However, growing up with Adora meant that Catra also knew her tells. If Adora was upset or angry when they talked, Catra would’ve been able to recognize the signs of it in her former friend. But, she probably changed since their youth, Catra told herself. It had been years since they last talked, after all.

“I’m sure Adora doesn’t hate you,” Scorpia said, sporting a calm, assuring smile.

“How do you know?” Catra asked her.

“Well, look at it this way, wildcat. If Adora hated you, she wouldn’t have given you her number.” Scorpia had a point. Adora had given away her number unprompted. Catra hadn’t offered her number, or asked for Adora’s. They hadn’t made any solid plans. Adora didn’t have to give Catra her number, but she did. Adora gave Catra her number because she wanted Catra to have her number.

“I hate that you’re making sense right now,” She said to her cheerful roommate. Suddenly, a loud ding echoed from Catra’s phone.

“Is that her? What did she say?” Catra ignored Scorpia as she nervously unlocked her phone to read the message.

“Looks like I have plans tomorrow afternoon,” she practically sighed in relief. _Definitely! Let me know when and where, and I’ll be there! XD_ “Side note: who uses XD anymore?!”

-

Adora anxiously tapped her fingers against the surface of the wooden table. They had agreed yesterday to meet up at 12:30, which was still five minutes away, but Adora was nothing if not overprepared, so she had shown up ten minutes early. She had forgotten that Catra tended to be fashionably late, or at least by her own standards. When they were kids, Catra and Adora's differences in punctuality had worked out well for both of them. Adora would always be the one to insist that they woke up early, left the house early, showed up early. Meanwhile Catra would drag her feet in the morning, encourage Adora to slow down and relax, and bring a less urgent and rushed feeling to every deadline. Between the two of them, they always managed to do everything and get where they needed to do on time and in a calm, smooth manner. They just made sense together back then. Maybe, hopefully, they could get back to that one day.

“Hey, Adora.” Catra walked up to the table. “Is this seat taken?” She didn’t wait for Adora to answer as she sat down across from Adora.

“Only by you.” Smooth. Real smooth. “How have you been?”

“Since the other day or since we last saw each other when we were kids?” Catra asked.

“Uh, both?” Adora answered. She didn’t really know where to start after all the years they had spent apart.

“I think it would be a lot easier on both of us if we skipped the small talk and got straight to the deep stuff, take care of all that dirty laundry,” Catra said bluntly. “I was a bitch to you, and you didn’t deserve it.”

“Catra, It’s-” Adora was about to tell Catra it was okay, but Catra interrupted before she could.

“Don’t say it’s fine. It’s not. Just let me talk for a minute, okay?” Catra asked.

“Okay.” Adora nodded.

“When you left, after you were adopted, it felt like you left me. You were all I had. You were the one good thing about my shitty life, so, when you left, I felt abandoned. It hurt like hell. I was hurt and alone and jealous, so I lashed out. I did a lot of things that I really regret.” Catra almost winced at the memories of her regrets. Catra was self-destructive, especially in her youth. Whenever she had found something that could have turned out to be good, she violently tore away from it out of fear that she would only be hurt again. “I kept moving from home to home because none of the families wanted to deal with a snarky, destructive kid with a penchant for getting into trouble. Because of that, and because I didn’t make any new friends after you, I didn’t have anywhere to go after I aged out of the system. I was essentially homeless and jobless for two years until I met my roommate Scorpia.”

“I’m so sorry, Catra,” Adora said softly. It was sympathy, not pity, Catra reminded herself.

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. I’m glad I know that now. I didn’t when we were kids.” Catra sighed, leaning back in her chair. Catra had cried her tears already. She had already felt that pain. It didn’t really upset her anymore. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? That part was somewhat debatable. “Besides, it all worked out. Scorpia hooked me up with a job and gave me the spare room after her old roommate moved out.”

“That’s good.” Adora smiled at her. Once again, Catra reminded herself that it was sympathy. Adora was being sympathetic. It wasn’t pity.

“So, what happened to you?” Catra asked, switching the attention onto Adora.

“I actually tried to get in touch with you after I was adopted, but it didn’t work out.”

“Really?” Catra asked, shocked.

“Yeah. I really missed you. Mara tried to help me, but we had no idea where you were and it was impossible to contact your social worker. We never stopped trying. Well, until that one night.” Adora regretted bringing the topic back up as soon as the words left her mouth.

“Changing the subject: who was that girl that was with you then?” Adora was grateful for the change in subject, immediately switching gears.

“Oh, that’s my friend Glimmer.” Adora explained. “We went to school together and Mara worked for her Mom. Mara introduced me to her and her friend Bow at a work function once, and the three of us have been friends ever since.”

“Of course you’d make friends like that,” Catra chuckled. “What’s Mara like?”

“She was great. She was kind and caring, and I know she loved me. She gave me more than I ever thought I’d have.” Adora thought back on all of her fond memories with Mara. The older girl had truly been a blessing for Adora. Before Mara adopted her, the only real time she had someone to care about her was Catra, and there wasn’t much two very hurt and struggling kids could really do for each other. Mara had given her the room to grow and live the rest of her adolescence happily. She showed Adora love, gave her a safe, stable home, and provided her with everything she could ever want.

“I’ll have to meet her sometime,” Catra said, giving Adora a rare soft smile.

“I, uh, don’t think that’s possible,” Adora muttered through a small, sad laugh.

“Why? Does she hate me or something?” Catra joked unknowingly.

“Mara died a year ago in an accident.” Adora bit back tears pricking at the corner of her eyes.

“Oh my gosh,” Catra gasped, dropping her playful tone. “Adora, I’m so sorry.” Adora shrugged.

“I still miss her, but there’s nothing I can do to bring her back.” That was something Adora had to remind herself of every morning, something her therapist had to remind her of often after Mara died. No matter what she did, nothing would bring Mara back. “I just hope I can live up to her memory and what she saw in me.” Coincidentally, that was the moment that her wristlet started beeping, alerting her of a new bot attack.

“What’s that?” Catra asked, motioning to the blinking light on her wrist.

“Uh, it’s a work emergency.” She technically wasn’t lying. Being She ra was her job. “I’m sorry. I have to go.”

“No worries. I get it,” Catra said. “We’ll just reschedule our lunch date for another day.” Adora nodded and went to leave, but stopped in her tracks and turned around halfway to the door.

“I’m, uh, having this thing at my place next week,” She suggested. “I know you don’t know my friends, and we just started talking again, but I’d really like it if you could come. I can text you details if you need them” Adora feared that she might have been too forward with her invitation, but her worries dissipated slightly when Catra gave her an assuring look and smile.

“Cool,” Catra said, trying to be. “I’ll be there if I don’t have to work.” She hoped she didn’t have to. A bright grin lit up Adora’s face.

“Great! Talk to you later, then!” She called out, almost running into the door on her way out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My writing isn't at it's best, but I'm working on getting it back to where I want it to be. I swear I have a plan and the story will pick up pace soon, I just have to actually write it. I might not be able to update next week because A) school is kind of a lot right now and B) I recently got a girlfriend and I want to spend some time with her.
> 
> P.S.: Thank you for all of the support! I really appreciate it!


	5. Rough Day

Adora grunted as she was thrown back, her back hitting the brick wall of a nearby building. These bots were getting stronger and smarter with each passing day. In a usual battle bots like these would be easy to take down with the right approach, but lately the number and ability of the bots has made getting out of the fight no easy feat. On top of that, the fights would sometimes happen in multiple places at the same time, forcing the heroes to split up. Adora was currently by herself, struggling to keep up the pace. She would likely be stuck here for a while, since all of the others were fighting on the complete other side of town. She swung her sword, wiping out a line of bots.

Catra was only a few blocks away. She had been on her way home when she heard the news of the fight and started running towards where it was. Her last two encounters with She ra didn’t give her much to go off of as far as figuring out She ra’s identity. Was this obsession? Maybe, but Catra had already committed. She was determined to find out who She ra was and why she was so familiar. Catra arrived on the scene slightly out of breath. Automatically, she could tell it didn’t look good for She ra, who was surrounded by the round, mechanical robots. She pulled her phone out and opened up the camera to record.

Adora hadn’t seen Catra yet, her attention solely devoted to keeping sharp, metallic tendrils from impaling her. She hadn’t, at first, noticed the girl inching closer to the fight while she pushed back another bot with her sword. She didn’t notice anyone was there until she heard someone call out a warning to her.

“Look behind you, princess!” Catra yelled from only a couple of feet away. Adora should have listened to the warning, but she got distracted by the sudden appearance of Catra and her proximity to the danger and was knocked forward with a hard blow to her back. She fell forward, catching herself on her hands and knees before she hit the ground.

“You need to get away from here now,” Adora managed to cough out with the air knocked out of her lungs.

“Why would I do that?” Catra asked incredulously. “I was the one to warn you. It’s not my fault you can’t listen.”

“It’s not safe for you. It’s not safe for any civilian,” Adora said as she tried to catch her breath.

“Oh please. Like it’s any safer for you.” Suddenly, Catra’s hand was in front of Adora. “You just got the wind knocked out of you by that thing. There is no way that you’re just magically okay after that.” Adora took the hand and pulled herself up, but gave Catra an annoyed glare.

“This is my job. I’ll be fine.” Adora brushed herself off and straightened her sword.

“Whatever you say, oh mighty She ra,” Catra scoffed.

“I really don’t have the time to argue with you right now. Will you please just-” A bot approached them, but She ra was quick to lift her sword and cut it open, throwing it to the side when she did. “Just go!”

“Sorry, princess, but I ran four blocks to get here. No way am I turning back-” Catra was cut off by a bot striking right in between the two of them, causing them to jump away.

“Is that a good enough reason to leave?” She ra said in an exasperated tone.

“I—” She ra didn’t wait for her answer, springing right back into action. Catra wouldn’t get any closer to the fighting this time. She learned her lesson. However, she wasn’t backing down. She could still record as much as she could from a decent distance from those killing machines. Catra watched as She ra swung her sword as she moved around the hoard of bots, swifty siding through many of the bots. A metal tendril swept under her leg, causing her to stumble, but she didn’t falter in regaining her balance and quickly jumped back into action. The bots surrounded her, which meant that they were easily able to get in hits on her. She stood strong against their attacks, deflecting them with her sword and wiping out a bot whenever she found an opening. After a long while of the continuous fighting, only a few bots remained standing, which She ra swiftly disposed of. Catra watched as the tall heroine limped over to her, climbing over limp robots in the way.

“I’m sorry if I was a little too harsh earlier,” She ra apologized. “But it really is way too dangerous for you to be that close to the fighting. Please, just stand back and let the professionals handle it next time.” She ra’s hand was out, waiting for an agreement to her plea. An agreement Catra wouldn’t give. Catra smirked.

“No promises,” Catra said, throwing her hands up by her face innocently as she slowly backed away to leave.

“Stubborn,” Adora hissed under her breath once Catra rounded the corner. “I don’t remember her being such a pain in the ass.”

-

“This is going absolutely nowhere,” Catra huffed, running a hand through her hair. Her and Scorpia were going through everything that she had managed to capture on her phone, which wasn’t really much of anything except for a lot of blur. “I can’t get any good pictures or videos of her on this shitty phone, I almost end up dying everytime I try to get closer, and running four blocks just for five seconds of interaction is not cutting it.”

“Why don’t we try a different approach,” Scorpia suggested. “We might not have the greatest quality footage of She ra in action, but we can leave that part to the journalists and news anchors. What we have is clues.”

“That…is actually a good idea, Scorpia. Why didn’t I think of that?” Catra mentally cursed herself for ever thinking to bypass that obvious solution.

“So, what do you know so far?” Scorpia asked.

“First and foremost, I know this chick from somewhere.” That much was certain. Catra would not be going so crazy over this if it was just some face she’s passed by. Catra remembered that smile, that look, that voice, from somewhere. Catra thought back to the previous battle for more keys. “I know that blonde hair is not a wig, otherwise it would not have stayed on when those things literally yanked at it today, so she has to be blonde. I also happen to know that she’s a total weirdo just from how she acts when she’s not actively slicing and dicing robots.” Catra thought about the information for a moment, then groaned and dragged her hands down her face in frustration. “Still, there’s probably millions of weirdos with blonde hair out there. There’s no way we can sort through all of them.”

“I have a friend that’s, like, insanely smart,” Scorpia said. “She could probably help if you’d maybe want to enlist some help.” Catra pondered the idea. She usually hated the idea of asking people for help, but, at this point, she figured it couldn’t hurt anything, except for her pride.

“Normally, I’d say no,” She said with a gruff in her voice.

“But?” Scorpia led on. Catra sighed.

“But, I’m supposed to work all week, so I won’t have time to work on this myself.” Catra knew that she would be booked for a while at work. She was glad to get the hours, but that meant that she wouldn’t have time to sift through any profiles or gather any more clues. As much as she hated to admit it, she could really use the help.

“Yes!” Scorpia squealed. “I’ll text her right now!”

“Don’t make a big deal out of it.” Catra hissed. She ruefully deleted all of the useless, pixelated images from her phone. Remembering something Adora had told her about the other day, she opened her messages and sent Adora a quick text.

-

Adora hissed as she slowly lowered herself into the tub. The hot water usually felt good on her sore muscles, but the multitude of cuts and gashes on her body in addition to her aching back made taking a bath much less relaxing and much more painful. Then again, everything kind of felt painful at this moment. This was the absolute worst that she’s ever felt after a battle. She gently ran a wet washcloth over her arms and legs, biting her lip and inhaling sharply when she came across a particularly large cut or wound. She could have gone to Moon’s medical branch. After all, it was set up specifically for times like this. However, this was Adora, and Adora could definitely handle this on her own. Adora’s phone vibrated on the counter where it was sitting. With a lot of effort, Adora pulled herself up from the floor of the tub. She rinsed herself off before stepping out completely. Adora had expected the vibration of her phone to be a text from Glimmer or Bow, checking on her. Pleasantly surprisingly, it was Catra. _Hey, Adora. When was that thing you’re having? I’m not working atm, so I have time to kill._ Adora stared down at the message confused. Then, she remembered.

“Oh. Oh no.” Adora threw her towel around herself, running out of the bathroom in a hurry, pausing for only a moment to text Catra back. _There’s not a specific time, so you could come anytime you want!_ That was the principle, but Adora really shouldn’t have said that. She had completely forgotten. She was the host and she forgot. “Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” Adora yelled to herself as she scrambled to her closet to find suitable clothes to wear. Her phone buzzed again while she was wrapping herself in bandages. _Anytime? That’s very hospitable of you._ Adora was barely able to type out a response in the form of a quick smiley face in her haste to get ready. She looked around her bedroom, with dirty clothes scattered on the floor and blankets carelessly strewn across her bed, and decided that it would be best if she just kept her bedroom door closed, obscuring anyone’s view of the atrocious mess. Her phone buzzed again. _So I could show up right now and you wouldn’t have a problem with it?_ No. _Yup!_ She didn’t know why she said that. She wasn’t ready. Her house wasn’t ready. There was a stack of dirty dishes in the sink. Everything from the counters to the end tables were covered in a thick layer of dust from not being used for so long. She really didn’t want Catra to see her house like this. Adora felt a sudden frenzy wash over her when she read the next message from Catra. _See you in 10._ “Shit,” Adora cursed. She had less than ten minutes to make her house look at least somewhat presentable. Luckily, her cleaning supplies were already sitting out on the kitchen counter from the last time she had planned to clean, but abandoned the idea when she got another call to duty. She rushed to pick the supplies up so that she might be able to finish cleaning before anyone arrived.

“Knock, knock!” The door opened, Bow coming through it with his hands full of bags. “I brought snacks! Glimmer’s carpooling with the other’s, but they should be here soon.”

“Hey, Bow,” Adora waved to him with the duster in hand. Bow dropped the bags down, then looked around the messy house.

“Uh, Adora? When was the last time you cleaned up this place?” He asked, giving Adora a strange, concerned look.

“Umm, right now?” Adora held out the duster in front of her.

“Hand over the duster, and go get started on the tower of dishes in your sink,” Bow sighed sympathetically. “We should probably get started now if we want to finish before everyone else gets here.”

“You’re a lifesaver! Thank you so much, Bow,” Adora said gratefully, gladly handing the small, plastic tool over to him.

-

Catra hesitated as her fist hovered over the door. When Catra had left the apartment and made her way over here, she hadn’t considered that she might be intruding. Adora had mentioned other friends that would be over before, but Catra hadn’t actually given it that much thought until now, when she was already standing in front of Adora’s door, getting ready to knock. She hadn’t thought about how Adora’s friends might feel about her, or if Adora had only invited her to be polite. She wasn’t given too much time to think about it, though, because the door opened just as Catra was going to drop her hand and run back home.

“Catra! I was waiting for you to get here!” Adora exclaimed brightly, pulling Catra into a sudden hug, which Catra, surprisingly, didn’t want to flinch away from.

“You were waiting for me? What, did your friends bore you in there?” Catra joked, masking her nervousness behind a smirk.Adora laughed.

“No, nothing like that. I’m just really happy to see you again. I actually want to introduce you to my friends.” Adora grabbed her arms and eagerly led her over to the couch, where a group of people were gathered together, laughing about some joke that they had just made. Adora cleared her throat. “Catra, these are my friends. Those two are glimmer and Bow. That’s mersista, that’s Seahawk, and that’s perfuma. Guys, this is Catra.” She announced. Catra awkwardly waved at the group. Seahawk jumped up and gasped.

“Wait. You’re Catra! You’re the- mmph!” He was cut off by Mermista slapping a hand over his mouth and elbowing his side hard.

“Don’t mind him,” the blue-haired girl said in annoyance, rolling her eyes. “He’s just insanely stupid.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Catra.” Perfuma smiled at her from across the room.

“Yeah, we’re happy you could come,” Bow chimed in.

“Yeah. You too,” Catra said, smiling back at them politely. Adora finally let go of Catra’s wrist and joined her other friends on the large couch.

“Come sit down. We were just about to turn on a movie.” Catra groaned when she saw Adora reach for the remote, but she took a seat next to the blonde, nonetheless.

“Please tell me that your taste has improved,” she groaned.

“My taste is amazing, thank you very much,” Adora pouted.

“That isn’t taste, Adora.” Catra stated behind a chuckle. “That’s a desperate cry for help.”

“Finally! Someone who agrees with me!” Glimmer laughed.

“Whatever,” Adora scoffed. “You guys just don’t appreciate the wondrous world of romantic comedies.”

“Sure, Adora. Whatever you say.” Catra rolled her eyes, but settled comfortably into the couch.

Nevermind the cheeseball movie Adora had turned on, they actually did watch it. There were laughs when something paticualary unrealistic or stupid happened onscreen, to which Adora tried to defend it by trying to explain how it could possibly happen in real life, but it was all fun and jokes. That is, until Adora’s wrist beeped, and she looked down at it with concern.

“I’m gonna go refill my drink,” She said in a shrill voice, sprinting off into the kitchen. She returned mere seconds after. “Well, looks like we ran out. I’ll go to the store to get some more. Be back soon!”

“Wait up. I’ll come with you.” Catra didn’t really want to be left alone with people that she barely knew in someone else’s house. She’d much rather take the short trip with Adora. Besides, Adora was obviously hiding something, since the girl couldn’t lie to save her life, and Catra wasn’t ever too fond of secrets. Adora looked at the others who nodded at her.

“Okay. Um, just one second.” Adora stepped into the hallway, Glimmer and Bow following her. Catra couldn’t tell what exactly they were saying, but she caught the worried glances and serious nods. After a moment of watching their private conversation, there were finally nods and Adora came back over to her. “Alright then. Let’s go for a drive, I guess.” Her voice was pitched as she grabbed the keys off of the wall and walked with Catra out to the parking lot for what was sure to be one hell of a last-minute store run.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got it done : ) Hope you enjoyed! Much thanks to everyone who's supported this fic; I really appreciate it, and it makes me smile to see that so many people enjoy it!


	6. Cover

Adora’s car was suffocating. Between the smothering silence that filled it, the much too strong air fresheners and had picked up the week before because they were on sale, and the nervous grip of Adora’s hands on the steering wheel, the short drive to the store felt like the longest five minutes of Adora’s life. Of course, the horde had to launch an attack on the one night that Adora actually had something planned. And, of course it would be when Catra was around. And, of course Catra would want to join. Such was just Adora’s terrible luck and timing.

“So, uh, work? How’s work going for you?” Adora struck up a conversation.

“It’s fine, I guess,” Catra said, shrugging. “Same shit, different day. You know?”

“Yeah. Yeah I get that," Adora said nodding. She understood that feeling very well. As exciting as one might think her life might be, being a superhero and all that, it sometimes felt like each day was on repeat. Sometimes it felt like she was going in circles with the same things happening almost every single day.

“What about you? What do you do, anyways?” Catra asked.

“I’m a…” Adora stumbled, quickly scanning her brian for something quick to say. It wasn’t as if she could just say that she was a part-time superhero. “Public safety administrator,” Adora settled. That’s a close enough job title, right? After all, that was what was usually listed on any official or government records, since you can’t exactly say you make a living by fighting robots when you go to file taxes.

“Cool. Now, what does that mean?” Catra asked.

“I, uh, look out for the best interests of the public and make sure the streets are safe to wander.” Technically, she wasn’t lying. She Ra’s job is to protect the public and keep the streets safe. Of course, she was kind of stretching that narrative a little bit here.

“That’s cool,” Catra noted. “So, what’s up?”

“Huh?” Adora questioned.

“You seem kinda off," Catra explained. "Is something going on?” Adora hated to lie. She knew she was an absolutely terrible liar, for one. There was a reason no one told her their secrets, understandably so. It was even harder to lie when she was looking at Catra’s genuinely concerned face. So, she settled for a half-truth.

“I’m a little tired. No big deal.” She was actually really tired, so she wasn't technically lying, just not telling the whole story.

“Mhm. Are you sure that’s it?” Catra asked, unconvinced.

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s it.” Adora said back, unconvincingly, leaving them at a standstill until Catra pointed it out.

“You still can’t lie to save your life.” Catra chuckled, turning her head away from the window to stare at Adora. "What's really going on?"

“It’s nothing, Catra. I’m fine," Adora said, trying not to sound too obvious,even though Catra had likely figured out that she wasn't being completely honest.

"Okay. I'm not going to push you if you don’t feel like telling me anything," Catra said, retreating. "But if you've got something on your mind, I'm always here to listen. And, unlike you, I can keep a secret if you need me to." If only she knew how big of a secret Adora was keeping right now. Adora wished she could tell Catra. She wished she could let it all out just like that. Alas, there are some secrets that are just too risky to share, especially with someone in such close relation to the Horde. Thankfully for Adora, Catra stayed true to her statement and didn't bring Adora's strange behavior up again. They didn't speak again for a while, which Adora was okay with this time since she didn't have to think of any more cover up stories, until they passed by a certain address that Adora had forgotten.

"Woah, wait! Pull over, Adora!” Catra suddenly exclaimed, wildly gesturing towards the side of the road. Adora, only slightly panicked, pulled over as soon as she spotted an open space.

“What’s going on?” Adora questioned frantically.

“Look.” Adora followed Catra’s gaze. Only a few blocks away, Glimmer and Bow were pushing against a group of Horde bots. A surge of dread went through her. She really should have just taken the long route instead of cutting through town. Catra jumped out of the vehicle and started heading towards the scene.

“Where are you going?” Adora asked, hopping out of the car herself.

“To get a closer look, obviously,", Catra said nonchalantly, as if she wasn't walking straight towards a literal fight.

“Are you insane!” Adora exclaimed, running over to her.

“Maybe,” Catra said admittedly with a shrug. “But there’s something I’ve been trying to figure out.”

“Catra, whatever it is, I’m sure you can figure it out without putting yourself in danger.” Adora was starting to sweat. Why did she have to be so stubborn?

“I’ll be careful! I just want to get a good look at the good old savior of the city.” Every step Catra took towards the danger only made Adora sweat more and more.

“You can always look up a picture if you need,” Adora suggested.

“It’s not the same. I need to see her face in person.” Catra didn’t turn back to look at Adora, staring straight ahead with determination. “I’m going to sound crazy, but I’ve met her before, and I swear she’s so familiar. It's been driving me out of mind, so I’m trying to figure out why.”

"Catra, please just get back in the car." Adora pleaded, looking between the other girl and her friends fighting. She couldn’t let Catra go into that fight.

"I'll be right back—" Adora reached out, firmly grabbing onto Catra's shoulder, but pulling away when Catra flinched at the touch.

"Please, don't go over there." She pleaded once more. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Okay. You're right." Catra gave in, looking over her shoulder at the fight one last time. "Besides, it doesn't even look like she's even here."

"Thank you,” Adora breathed out, sighing in relief as a weight lifted from her shoulders.

"What else was I supposed to do when you gave me that look?"

"What look?" Adora asked innocently.

"Oh, come on! You know exactly what I'm talking about." Catra mimicked the mentioned expression with a slight exaggeration. "You always get those sappy little sad puppy dog eyes when you're worried."

"I do not!" Adora argued back, lightly shoving Catra and racing towards the car.

“You—" Catra dashed after her, the two of them wrestling each other to win their mildly competitive race, laughing all the way just like they used to.

-

After that whole debacle, Adora and Catra returned to Adora’s house, somehow forgetting the whole reason they left in the first place. Luckily, Catra either didn’t notice, or didn’t care enough to question it. Everyone was still there when they got there, aside from Glimmer and Bow who, as Mermista informed them, had a ‘family emergency’ and had to leave early. The rest of Adora’s friends trickled out over the night as it got later, only leaving Catra and Adora by the time midnight rolled around, though neither of them seemed to realize it had gotten that late. Both of them

“Oh, shit!” Catra exclaimed when she saw the time on her phone. “Fuck! This is not good.” She scrambled off of the couch and onto her feet in a hurry.

“What? What’s wrong?” Adora jumped up as well, confused.

“I stayed out way too late. It’s past fucking midnight and I have to work tomorrow.” Catra looked out the window at the pitch black streets. “Now I’m going to have to walk all the way home in the dark.” She ran a hand through her hair, resisting the urge to pull it all out in frustration, and let out an exasperated sigh.

“I could drive you home if you wanted,” Adora offered.

“You really don’t have to do that, Adora,” Catra said in return. She didn’t want to ask too much of Adora. It just didn’t feel right with them only reuniting not too long ago..

“I know, but I want to. I insist. We both know it isn’t safe to be walking the streets this late at night.” That much was definitely true. There were always creeps out there, and, although Catra had dealt with people like that many times before, there was always a very high chance that it wouldn’t end well for her.

“Oh, so you think I can’t fend for myself? Are you calling me weak, Grayskull?” Catra said teasingly.

“No! That’s not what—” Adora backtracked before seeing Catra’s smirk and realizing she was poking fun at her.

“You really did get too sensitive over the years, huh? Are you going soft on me?” Catra teased.

“Oh, ha ha. Very funny, Catra,” Adora mocked back at her. “My offer still stands, even though you’re acting like a dummy.”

“Oh, so I’m the dummy now?” Catra scoffed. “Says the girl who jumped off the roof and broke her ankle because she thought she could land on her feet.”

“We were ten, Catra! That was forever ago!” Adora squealed defensively.

“And even after all those years you’re still the biggest idiot on the planet,” Catra chuckled. “But, I would really appreciate a ride. Thanks.”

“No problem,” Adora said with her bright smile.

“Just let me grab my—” Catra cut herself off when she felt nothing in her pocket. She dug around in her other pockets before donning an expression of realization and cursing under her breath. “I don’t have my apartment keys. I didn’t bring my keys with me because I thought I’d be home in time to catch Scorpia before she went to sleep.”

“That’s fine,” Adora said before nervously stammering through an explanation. “I mean, obviously it’s not exactly fine. It’s almost one in the morning and you can’t go home. But we can work it out.”

“And how exactly are we going to work it out?” Catra questioned with raised eyebrows.

“Well,” Adora began, “You could stay here for the night. Only if you wanted too, of course. I could drive you to your house or work or wherever you need to go in the morning.”

“I guess there aren’t many options, so, yeah. I’d really appreciate it.” Catra’s eyes widened when she heard her own words and she immediately revised her statement. “Fuck. That came out really bitchy and unappreciative. Sorry. I just don’t usually like to rely on other people like this. I swear it’s nothing on you. I am really grateful that you’re doing this for me.”

“It’s totally fine. I totally get it,” Adora assured her. “Uh, do you want to take the bed?” Catra

“You’re seriously asking me if I want to steal your bed from you in your house?”

“I don’t mind giving up my bed for a night,” Adora shrugged.

“I am not going to take your bed from you, Adora. I’ll be perfectly fine here on the couch or on the floor.” Adora opened her mouth to interject, but Catra spoke up again before she could say a word. “And, before you even ask, I am one hundred percent sure.”

“If you insist,” Adora said, giving up her case. “Let me go get you a blanket and pillows at least.” Adora disappeared from the doorway and reappeared with an armful of bedding, setting it down on the couch beside Catra.

“Thanks, Adora.” Catra smiled gratefully up at her. “It really does mean a lot.” Adora grinned back at Catra.

“Of course! It’s really no problem, Catra. I’m always willing to help a friend.” She’d actually most definitely always be willing to help anyone, regardless of whether or not they were a friend. Nonetheless, the sentiment was still there; they were friends again, at least in Adora’s eyes, just like they had been forever ago. “Well, uh, goodnight, I guess,” Adora said as she slowly walked back and disappeared into her room.

“Night, Adora,” Catra replied, arranging the materials Adora had given her and reaching over to turn off the lamp on the end table, leaving her in a much more comfortable darkness than whatever was outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was originally a lot more in this chapter but I moved stuff around so that it would make more sense organizational and chronological wise. Hope you enjoy!


	7. Past Memories

_“Are you sure we’re okay to do this?” Adora asked as Catra helped her up the stairs to the attic, carefully directing her small feet to avoid the creaky steps._

_“Relax, Adora. Weaver is asleep. Everyone is asleep. We’re, like, the only ones awake right now,” Catra told her, grabbing onto her upper arms and pulling her up the rest of the way. Catra had to hold her there for a moment while she regained her balance, seeing how the blonde was still feeling the effects of being woken up in the dead of night._

_“I hope you’re right,” Adora said, dusting off her now dusty pants. “We’ll be in a lot of trouble if we get caught.” They were being very risky, slipping out of their beds well after curfew to hide away somewhere that they weren’t allowed to go. If Miss Weaver found out, the punishment would no doubt be horrible. They just had to hope that another one of the kids sleeping downstairs didn’t wake up while they were up here and rat them out. “What made you want to come up here anyways?”_

_“I just wanted to get away for awhile,” Catra shrugged. “Just you and me. No Weaver and no other nosy kids around to get all up in our business.” She sat down next to the small window and crossed her legs._

_“How did you even figure out how to get up here?” Adora asked, sliding past the multitude of boxes to join her at the window. Catra shrugged again._

_“I have to find something to do when you’re gone at practice,” She said, her gaze fixed on the moonlit night sky._

_“You could always ask to join the team, you know,” Adora suggested. She had made this particular suggestion a couple of times before, but she always received the same answer each time._

_“Nah. I don’t think Weaver would let me. Besides, that’s your thing, not mine.” Catra had once wanted to join Adora at her practices and games, but she quickly lost interest when Adora tried explaining the rules. Once she learned that it was a lot more complicated than running around in uniforms and having fun, it didn’t seem as appealing. Catra preferred to follow the beat of her own drum anyway.._

_“I still think you’d be good at it,” Adora said, scooting closer to Catra._

_“Of course you do, you big dummy.” Realistically, Adora was right. Catra would probably be good at sports, if she actually felt like following a playbook or spending all day with a group of people who likely wouldn’t like her, Adora excluded._

_“It would give you a reason to get out of the house,” She noted. “Plus, you’d get to spend more time with me!”_

_“Psh! Why would I want to do that?” Catra said, playfully nudging Adora’s side._

_“Because you secretly like me!” Adora said, swooping forward to pull Catra into a tight hug before she had a chance to escape it. “Why else would you wake me up at one in the morning to sneak off to some dusty old attic together?”_

_“Argh! This is not because I like you!” Catra shouted, still keeping her volume down so that she didn’t wake anybody up downstairs. She struggled to break free and push away from Adora’s affectionate embrace._

_“Sure,” Adora snickered, letting Catra go from her imprisonment._

_“It’s not!” Catra yelped, wrestling Adora to the ground, causing the blonde to burst into a fit of laughter._

-

_Catra perked up when she heard the door open. She had been waiting for Adora to get home for a long time, longer than she usually had to wait when Adora had an out of town game. She jumped up from her bed and ran to the door, happy to finally have something more to do than stare at the ceiling and avoid starting trouble with the other kids. Catra had expected Adora to be beaming, a grin stretching across her face from ear to ear. She was usually like that after a victory, which was almost every game. However, when Catra met her at the door, Adora wasn’t grinning. She wasn’t even smiling at all for that matter._

_“Hey, Adora,” Catra greeted, making her presence known._

_“Hey,” Adora whispered softly. She had her eyes glued to the floor in front of her and her shoulders were slumped._

_“What’s wrong? Did something happen at your game?” Catra asked, concerned for her friend and the odd change in mood._

_“Nothing is wrong, Catra,” Adora replied, still keeping her gaze lowered as she knelt down to take off her shoes._

_“Uh huh,” Catra scoffed. “Everything is perfectly fine, and that’s why you won’t look at me.” Adora huffed frustratedly, which Catra had never heard her do, and shook her head._

_“I’m just tired. I’ve been busy all day and I just got back from a game,” Adora told her, still refusing to look up._

_“That’s s—”_

_“Adora,” Miss Weaver’s voice boomed as she came out of the shadows, appearing from seemingly nowhere. Her presence immediately caught both girls attention. Adora shot up, standing straight as a line and Catra’s muscles tensed up. “You can excuse yourself Catra. I need to talk to Adora alone.”_

_“Why can’t I stay?” Catra talked back, which she knew was going to get her in trouble._

_“You know I don’t like to repeat myself, child,” Weaver threatened, glaring sternly at Catra. “You have ten seconds to get out before there are consequences.” Catra looked between the cold woman and her friend before huffing under her breath and stomping away._

_“Fine,” she pouted, scurrying off. She didn’t really go far though. Once she was out of sight, she hid behind a corner and peeked around it._

_“I know what you’re going to say,” Adora said, looking down at her hands and picking at her nails._

_“Which is?” Miss Weaver asked, raising an eyebrow._

_“That you’re disappointed in me for costing my team the game and making you look bad.” Adora looked and sounded meek, like a small, quivering animal under a hunter’s scrutinizing gaze._

_“And?” Weaver prodded her to continue._

_“And I shouldn’t have gotten distracted like I did,” Adora answered timidly._

_“If you know what critiques I have so well, why did you still make those mistakes.”_

_“I— I didn’t mean to, Miss Weaver. I won’t let it happen again,” she said, doing her best to hold Miss Weaver’s gaze.. Despite her best efforts, the tearful shakiness was noticeable in Adora’s stuttering voice._

_“You’ve been getting distracted more easily lately. Don’t let it get out of hand, or I will be forced to put my foot down and remove any…” She paused, a small snarl forming on her face. “Personal distractions from your daily life.”_

_“I promise it won’t come to that. I’ll even practice more whenever I have time to. I won’t let a repeat of today happen.” Adora’s brows were furrowed in concentration and determination. She wouldn’t fail again. She wouldn’t let herself fail again. She could do better._

_“Good. You’re dismissed.” Miss Weaver waved her away dismissively. “And wipe those tears off of your face.”_

_“Yes, ma’am.” Adora, still very stiff, swiped her palm across her eyes and walked out of the room quickly. She walked right past Catra, her shoulders slightly shaky. Catra didn’t try to stop her; she knew where she was going and she’d join her in just a moment. She just needed to grab something first._

-

_"Hey Adora," Catra said as she walked up behind a curled up Adora. Adora didn't say anything. She didn't even look up or make a sound. She just tucked her head further into her folded arms. "I, uh, got you something. Thought maybe a little chocolate might cheer you up." Adora lifted her head._

_"Where did you get chocolate?" She asked, eyes wide._

_"I knew that would get your attention." Catra sat down next to her and began unwrapping the candy bar. "That one cool teacher at school gave a whole bar. Can you believe that?" Adora smiled for the first time that night._

_"I—" Her face fell when she seemed to remember why she hadn't been smiling before. "Thanks, but I think you should enjoy it yourself."_

_"There's plenty to share, Adora," Catra said, breaking off a price and holding it out to the blonde._

_"It's yours, Catra," Adora told her, shaking her head. "Besides, I don't deserve any."_

_"First of all, that's stupid. What is that even supposed to mean?" Catra huffed and rolled her eyes. "Secondly, I'm not taking no for an answer. Now, will you please just take the chocolate before it melts?"_

_"Thanks," Adora mumbled, surrendering and gently picking up a piece of the candy from Catra's hand. Catra broke off a peice for herself and they both ate their pecies in silence._

_"Do you want to—"_

_"I messed up," Adora blurted out. "I was distracted, and I fumbled, and I messed up, and I made us lose. I failed." Catra blinked at her, then shoved another price of chocolate her way, which Adora willingly accepted this time._

_"Adora, you didn't fail. You lost one game," Catra tried to assure her._

_"I shouldn't be losing any of them! I should be better than this! I shouldn't be so easily distracted all of the time!" Adora's face was turning red and tears welled up in her eyes, threatening to spill over at any given moment, but she kept going. "I should know better! I should do better! I'm not good enough! I can't— I can't—" Adora's voice broke off. Tears were now pouring freely as she slid her hands into her hair and pulled at her scalp harshly, struggling to catch her breath._

_"Adora. Adora, look at me," Catra ushered, but Adora was too caught up in her own head to hear her words, especially with her hands covering her ears protectively. Catra lolscooted in front of her and placed a comforting hand of her leg. Adora snapped her head up, frantic eyes bouncing to around different parts of Catra's face. "Breathe." Adora tried, taking in a sharp breath and letting it out through a sob. Catra took a deep breath, encouraging Adora to do the same. Adora hiccuped when she inhaled, her throat closed tight from crying._

_"I—" Adora hiccuped. "I'm s— sorry, Catra. I shouldn't be like this in front of you."_

_"You don't need to apologize for anything, silly" Catra told her, pushing her sleeves down to wipe away the wetness on Adora's cheeks. "Just focus on breathing." Adora nodded, letting Catra guide her through more deep breaths until her harsh sobs had subsided to small sniffles here and there._

_"Thank you." Adora smiled, shifting into a comfortable position to give her friend a hug._

_"You'd do the same for me, right?" Catra stated, hugging her back despite her usual dislike of the affection._

_"Yeah, I guess that's true," Adora chuckled, wiping her eyes as she pulled back. They leaned against each other in silence, listening to but unbothered by the familiar sounds of yelling and shrieking downstairs._

_"Wanna finish this chocolate bar and then go mess with Kyle?"_

_"I thought you'd never ask."_

-

_"You insolent child!" Miss Weaver barked at Catra. "You absolute mistake of a runt!" Catra's eyes widened in fear as the older woman stomped towards her, backing her into a corner. She harshly grabbed onto Catra's arm and raised her hand._

_"Stop!" Adora suddenly shouted, leaving both Weaver and Catra in shock. Miss Weaver shot the girl a look of warning. She visibly shrunk and lowered her voice. "I— I mean, please don't hurt her. It was my idea. I'm the one that did it. She shouldn't get the blame for it."_

_"Oh, Adora," Weaver spoke softly, cradling Adora's cheek. It was scary how quick her demeanor changed whenever she talked to Adora. "Don't lie to me. I know the little pest has been dragging you through the mud. You must learn to keep her under control."_

_"I— I'm sorry, Miss Weaver," Adora all but whispered, frozen in place in both obedience and fear, mostly the latter._

_"As you should be," Weaver spat out. She walked away from both girls and walked over to the counter, picking up a discarded glass and raising it to her lips. "You have ten seconds to get out of my sight."_

_"Yes, ma'am." Adora took hold of Catra's hand and led her out of the room. As soon as they were out of earshot of their menacing guardian, Catra yanked back her arm and dashed away from Adora. "Catra!" Adora whined, chasing after her. Catra didn't stop. She kept running, her small feet lightly pittering against the hardwood floor. That both knew where she was going, and it was risky, but that wouldn't stop her. She quietly pulled down the stairs and nimbly climbed up them without touching any of the creaky steps. Adora was clamoring to catch up behind her whimpering when she tripped on a step and fell, eventually catching her balance and making it to the top._

_"Go away!" Catra shouted at her._

_"No." Adora refused to go, getting even closer to Catra._

_"Leave me alone," She cried out, throwing a small cardboard box that was sitting to the side at Adora. Adora grunted when the box hit her, but she kept walking until she was directly in front of the smaller girl._

_"Catra, please talk to me," she pleaded with her._

_"You want me to talk to you? Fine. I'll talk," Catra hissed. "I'm tired of this! I'm tired of being Weaver's problem! I'm tired of being your pet! I'm tired of being treated like garbage next to little miss perfect!" In her rage, Catra firmly shoved at Adora's chest. Adora caught her balance before she fell, but she was in shock over Catra's angry outburst._

_"Catra—"_

_"You're the favorite, and I'm just an annoying little brat! She hates me! She probably wishes I were dead!" Catra bitterly spat out her words, punctuating each bitter statement with another push on Adora's chest._

_"Don't say that—"_

_"But you're her perfect little Adora! You're her little golden girl! It's not fair!" Catra ended her rant by punching Adora in her abdomen. Adora grunted, but otherwise didn't react. Catra simmered down soon after that, huffily sitting down with her back facing the other girl, knees drawn close to her chest._

_"I know," Adora sighed, sitting down back to back with Catra and pulling her knees to her chest as well. "I know it's not fair. You don't deserve to be treated like that, and trust me, I hate having to be the favorite. I wish I could do something to help you more, but I can't. Just, please don't hate me for it."_

_"I don't hate you," Catra scoffed after a beat of silence passed between them, shifting her position against Adora. "I'm just really mad right now."_

_"I know. I'm sorry." Adora leaned her head back, resting it comfortable against Catra’s. Catra tensed up at first, but soon returned the movement._

_"It's whatever. Besides, as long as we have each other, nothing really bad can happen, right?" Adora smiled when she saw the small pinky finger extended in between them both. She linked her own finger around it in solidarity._

_"Right!" She affirmed. “And I’m always going to be your friend. Promise.”_


	8. Moving Forward

Catra woke up to the sound and smell of sizzling bacon. At first, she was a little disoriented as to why her bedroom was so smoky, but then she remembered that she was laying on top of her childhood friend’s couch, not in her bedroom. She sat up with a protesting grumble and rubbed at her eyes, squinting from the blinding morning light coming through the window next to her.

“Morning!” Adora chirped, chipper as ever. She was standing over by the stove, tending to a pan of bacon and humming along softly to an upbeat tune.

“Mm,” Catra mumbled, barely awake yet.

“I’m making breakfast.” She stated, getsuring down towards the pan. “I didn’t know what you usually like to eat nowadays, so I hope bacon and waffles are okay with you.”

“Mhm,” Catra grumbled out gratefully. Bacon and waffles sounded heavenly right now, considering Catra hadn’t actually had ‘breakfast’ in a while. She usually just grabbed something small, like a granola bar or a handful of chips, as she walked out the door. It wasn’t the healthiest diet, but she hadn’t died yet, so why change it?

“Thank goodness! This is like one of the only things I can actually make somewhat decently.” Adora chuckled to herself while she moved across her kitchen “Coffee?”

“Yes, please,” Catra muttered out her first coherent words of the day. She slowly made her way over to a seat at the kitchen island.

“Did you sleep alright? Did you get cold or cramped or anything last night?” Adora asked while she poured the coffee into two mugs.

“Gimme, like, five minutes, Adora. I can barely process half of the words you’re saying right now,” Catra rasped out, tiredly rubbing at her face and eyes.

“Right. Not a morning person.” Adora slid the full mug over to her, taking a sip from her own mug.

“Never have been. Love the enthusiasm though.” She took a long sip out of the mug. “And the coffee. I’m sure any past partners of yours absolutely loved this whole morning pep and prep thing.” Adora nearly choked on her coffee, a bright red blush spreading across her face.

“Heh, yep. That has definitely happened before,” She quickly uttered out, bashfully turning away to hide her embarrassed face. Catra set down her mug and stared at Adora, or Adora’s back.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never been in a relationship before?” Catra questioned in disbelief.

“Okay! Why don’t we get off of the topic of my love life?” Adora squealed, growing even redder, if that was even possible. Catra chuckled at her embarrassment.

“It’s fine if you haven’t, Adora. I haven’t had a chance to date either. I was just genuinely curious, and honestly kind of shocked.” Adora gave her a questioning look, to which she gave an explanation. “I figured you’d have people throwing themselves at you all the time with those showy muscles. I thought that you and what’s-her-face with the purple hair would have at least hit it off and been a thing at some point.

“No, I’ve never ‘been a thing’ with anyone,” Adora confessed, shrugging her shoulders. “I guess I’m too preoccupied with other things to think about that sort of stuff.”

“Hmm,” Catra hummed in acknowledgment, reveling in Adora’s statement.

“On another note, where do I need to take you first on this fine morning?” Adora asked as she opened up a cabinet above her and pulled two plates down.

“What do you mean?” Catra gave her a puzzled look.

“You said you had to work today, right? Do I need to take you home so you can change and stuff or do you need to stop by somewhere else?” Adora asked. Catra had almost forgotten about having to go to work. Then again, that’s not really an instinct thought when someone first wakes up.

“I guess I should probably go home and change before heading to work,” Catra reasoned. “What time is it?”

“Uh, almost eight,” Adora answered, looking down at her watch.

“Good,” Catra said, taking another long sip of coffee. “That means I probably have some time before I have to be at work.”

“Enough time to eat?” Adora asked, setting down a plate full of bacon and waffles in front of Catra.

“Um, hell yes. Like I’m going to skip out on free food,” Catra said, picking up and taking a large bit out of a piece of bacon. “Who do you take me for? You?” Instead of retorting back at the comment, Adora laughed as she sat down next to her friend with a plate of her own.

-

Catra had hoped that the rest of the day would follow along with the joy of waking up to a home cooked breakfast, but she did work in customer service for a notoriously customer unfriendly company, so there was no way that was actually going to happen. What she did get was the usual upset customers screaming in her face over things that she had absolutely no control over. But that was just your average work day in this type of job. However, the normalcy of her daily work routine changed around lunch time when her supervisor asked to see her in his office on her break. Her first reaction was to be pissed that she was having to miss one of the few breaks she got in a day, but that faded when she actually thought about why she would need to talk with her supervisor. Usually, that meant that there was some sort of issue. Sometimes that meant losing your job. It was especially unnerving since the man who wanted to speak with her seemed to hate her guts. Catra shook those thoughts out, knowing it wouldn’t change anything if she went in completely nerve wrecked.

“You’ve got this, Catra. It’s no big deal. It’s just a talk with good old Hordak,” Catra hyped herself up, shaking off any nerves before she knocked on the door to Hordak’s office.

“Come in,” a gruff voice sounded from inside.

“Uh, you wanted to see me, Hordak?” She said, slowly pushing the door open.

“Yes. Take a seat, Catra.” Catra moved closer and sat down in the wooden chair across from him in front of his desk.

“If I’m fired, please just go ahead and tell me.” She didn’t want to draw this out any more than necessary. She’d much prefer to get the bad news out of the way and go home.

“Despite my better judgement,” he snarled, sending a grimace her way. “No. You are not fired. This is about something else.”

“Something else?” Catra questioned. Now that she knew she still had a job, the nerves were gone and she was extremely curious as to why exactly she was there.

“You’ve been selected for a promotion to the next floor,” he stated. Catra’s jaw dropped.

“Are you serious?” She asked, eyes wide. Maybe she was wrong and breakfast did set her up for a good rest of the day.

“Sadly, yes,” he gruffed, gathering a stack of papers in front of him. “As to why you of all people were selected, that’s anyone’s guess. I could have probably picked plenty more capable workers, but I’m not the one in charge of this.”

“You aren’t?” Hordak shook his head.

“No. My older brother decided that he wanted to pick a select few from our lower paying jobs to move up. For some reason, he picked you.” he seemed to be ignoring Catra now, rubbing his temples while looking down at his papers. Catra didn’t mind. She was much too ecstatic right now at the news of a promotion.

“Well tell him I said thank you,” she said with a smile.

“I’ll be sure to bring it up,” Hordak responded dryly, rolling his eyes. “You’ll receive more information later on in an email. I have a headache and am not in the mood to deal with you in particular.”

“Same old Hordak, huh?” She chuckled as she stood up from the chair.

“Watch it. I’m still your boss as of right now,” he warned, not bothering to look up from his paperwork. “You’re dismissed now. I’m sure there are customers out there waiting for you.” There probably was. There were always angry customers waiting for someone to shout at. But they could wait a little longer. This was big news and Catra wanted to enjoy the moment.

-

Adora was taking notes on the discussion happening around her. Or, at least that was what she was supposed to be doing right now. Instead, she was staring down at her phone in her lap. She was being very unintentionally obvious about it too, a short puff of air escaping from her nose every so often and a faint glow across her face. She wouldn’t normally do this, but she couldn’t bring herself to pay attention to much of anything today.

“Adora? Hello! Earth to Adora!” Someone called out to her in her trance.

“Huh!” Adora’s head shot up, looking around. Glimmer was standing next to her, waving a hand in front of her face. “Oh, uh, yes?”

“It’s over. You can leave now if you want.” Glimmer gestured to the empty room around them and a small embarrassed blush crept onto Adora’s cheeks.

“Oh, I didn’t realize. Sorry.” She awkwardly laughed as she stood up and tucked her phone into the front pocket of her jeans.

“Anything that keeps you that distracted must be special,” Bow chuckled.

“I’m just glad that you’ve found something besides work to occupy your time,” Glimmer laughed. Before she reunited with Catra, Bow and Glimmer pretty much kept her social life afloat. Sure, she hung out with other people, like Mermista and Perfuma and such, but never without Bow or Glimmer. “We love you, but even we can only do so much,” she said. Adora’s phone vibrated from her pocket. She pulled it out to read and respond to the text she knew it was.

“Who are you talking to?” Bow asked, coming up behind her and peeking at the screen from over her shoulder.

“Uh, it’s Catra,” Adora answered, smiling down at the screen as she read Catra’s message. They hadn’t hung out that much since reconnecting, but their relationship just felt natural. It didn’t take long for them to reach the point of texting each other almost everyday.

“The Horde girl? Again?” Bow asked with a chuckle, referencing the many other times that Adora had been caught texting Catra that week.

“She’s not just the Horde girl,” Adora scoffed, tapping at the screen.

“Yeah, get it right. She’s also Adora’s middle school crush,” Glimmer taunted.

“Not a crush! We were best friends!” Adora corrected. Glimmer had made it a trying habit to tease Adora everytime Catra was brought up in the conversation. Adora defended and corrected her every time, but Glimmer never took that for an answer.

“Nothing that you told me about you two sounded like just two best friends,” she said with a roll of her eyes. Glimmer had been insistent ever since Adora had mentioned a few instances of her and Catra’s childhood together that their friendship seemed like something more. Adora rolled her eyes at that.

“We had a special kind of friendship. That’s literally it.” If she was being honest, Adora clearly remembered a couple of times when her and Catra had joked in their youth about getting married one day, but they were only kids. They didn’t really understand what that meant. Besides, kids say that kind of stuff all of the time. It didn’t have to mean anything, and it definitely didn't have to mean that she had a crush on Catra.

“The whole ‘we grew up together’ excuse only goes so far, Adora.” Glimmer said pointedly. “I mean, me and Bow grew up together too, but some of your stories seem a bit out of the realm of ‘grew up together’ territory.”

“Yeah, and I distinctly remember you saying something about the two of you exchanging rings?” Bow pointed out.

“We were twelve!” Adora groaned, dragging her hands down her face.

“Okay, sorry. We can drop it for now,” Bow smiled, patting Adora on the back. “As long as you’re happy and being careful with the Horde girl, that’s all that matters.”

“But you can’t run forever, Adora,” Glimmer added on teasingly. Adora only rolled her eyes and smiled, returning to her attention to her phone screen to view the new messages.

-

Catra (3:24 PM)  
Guess who got a promotion

Adora (3:25 PM)  
who?  
do I know them?

Catra (3:25 PM)  
…  
It’s me, dumbass

Adora (3:25 PM)  
oh  
congrats catra!  
that’s really awesome

Catra (3:26 PM)  
It really is  
Now I might not have to deal with strangers yelling in my face everyday  
Sure, people might still yell in my face  
But it won’t be complete strangers calling me slurs now  
So what are you up to?

Adora (3:26 PM)  
i’m at work rn  
in a meeting

Catra (3:27 PM)  
oops  
Sorry  
I didn’t mean to bother you at work

Adora (3:27 PM)  
it’s fine  
i can’t pay attention rn anyway  
plus i like talking to you

Catra (3:28 PM)  
Oh?  
You do?

Adora (3:28 PM)  
yeah  
i do  
so does your promotion include fewer hours?

Catra (3:28 PM)  
Maybe  
We’ll have to see  
Why?

Adora (3:29 PM)  
bc you work a lot and deserve a break!  
also  
less time spent working=more time to hang

Catra (3:30 PM)  
Both very valid points  
Gtg  
Scorpia’s friend is here for a thing we planned

Adora (3:30 PM)  
k  
ttyl have fun!  
:)

-

Scorpia’s nerd friend, Entrapta, turned out to be a bit more eccentric than Catra had expected, but she was very easy to get along with. She was sometimes a little too touchy for Catra’s liking (she ‘examined’ Catra upon the first five seconds after meeting her), but she seemed agreeable and understandable. Catra could understand why Scorpia was friends with her.

“Scorpia said that there was an investigation,” Entrapta posed the query as she took out her laptop from her bag.

“Of sorts,” Catra said. She pulled up a picture of their subject on her phone and showed it to Entrapta. “I’m trying to figure out who’s behind the mask.”

“Oh! A hero chasing expedition! This should be fun!” Entrapta squealed in excitement, clapping her hands together

“You think it’ll be hard?” Scorpia asked. Entrapta shook her head.

“Oh, no. It shouldn’t be too hard,” she told the other two, typing in something on her computer. “I could probably get that answer relatively soon with the help of modern technology and possibly some forensic science if it comes to that, but I still think it will be fun.”

“Cool,” Catra said cooly, leaning over to get a look at the dim screen. “So, what do we need to do?”

“Well, you could start by evaluating what you already know. Determine what is and isn’t real about the She Ra’s heroic image.”

“Her hair is real and her muscles are definitely real,” Catra listed off. “Does that help?” Entrapta typed away, then nodded.

“Very much. That’s already cut our possibilities by a lot. Anything else?” She raised her head, looking between the two for answers.

“I know her,” Catra told the purple haired woman. “I know it seems arbitrary but I have this gut feeling that we know each other from somewhere.”

“That could possibly help later if we need that information,” Entrapta told her. “But it doesn’t do much for creating a database.”

“Right.” Catra cursed herself for mentioning it. “Well, is there anything someone else figured out and put on the internet that could help us.”

“Currently searching for reliable sources on She Ra.” Entrapta focused on her computer screen, scanning for the information. “Oh! Here’s one. Apparently, she accidentally let her mask slip down once and someone caught her eye color. The picture is blurry, but her eyes are unmistakably blue.” Catra and Scorpia leaned in to get a look, and saw that Entrapta was right. She Ra’s eyes were a bright blue under her mask.

“So blonde hair and blue eyes, huh?” Catra snickered.

“And, uh, big muscles, according to you,” Scorpia added on. Catra turned sound quickly, sending a glare in her friend's direction.

“Say one more word. I dare you,” she warned. Scorpia threw her hand up innocently.

“Yeah, okay. Message received.” The taller woman nodded and backed off. They both turned back to Entrapta.

“So, can you work with that? Think you can find her?” Catra asked the purple haired woman.

“Oh definitely. She’d have to be from around here, so our list of possible She Ras has already closed in pretty quickly,” Entrapta explained excitedly, scrolling through something that Catra didn’t care too much to ask about on her computer. She’d rather not question the process and stick with just thanking the genius. “Thanks to the joys of modern technology and government databases, I’ll have an answer in no time!” And, in no time, Catra could finally put this nagging feeling bugging at her brain behind her and move on from this strange obsession. In no time, she would finally know She Ra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so exited for the stuff I've planned for upcoming chapters! And I have a week off from school so I can write more! Also, Adora never uses caps or grammar when texting and I will die on that hill.
> 
> (P.S. I have no idea how jobs work because I am sixteen living in a pandemic and broken economy so I'm just guessing and referring back to what I know from media most of the time.)


	9. Long Day

Perhaps Catra had been too optimistic about her new job. That was the singular thought that crossed her mind when she showed up to work for her first day working on the second floor. Workers frantically bustled around, coldened eyes glaring at each other as they bumped into each other in passing. Some of them sat rigidly at desks, pursing their lips in annoyance. Catra could practically feel the tense working environment from the moment she stepped off of the elevator. She was supposed to receive instruction on where to go and what to do from someone, but she doubted that anyone here would be in the mood to help her.

“Excuse me? Could you—” Catra tried to catch the attention of a passing employee for help, but was rudely pushed to the side. “Guess I’ll have to figure this out by myself.” Catra pushed through a group of gossiping employees, earning her many scoffs and eye rolls. She didn’t care. She was only here for the paycheck, just like the rest of them.

“You,” Some guy in a suit called out, pointing at Catra. “What’s your name?”

“Catra.” She extended her hand for a handshake, but the other guy didn’t seem too interested in that idea.

“Good. You’re here. Follow me,” He said sharply and turned around on his heel and took off, leaving a confused Catra behind. Catra sprung forward to match his pace. He led her to a small desk tucked away at the side of the room and gestured towards the small work space. “This is where you’ll be doing your work.”

“Um, what exactly am I supposed to be doing here?” Catra asked, still very lost as simply guiding her to a desk didn’t exactly explain anything. The man sighed and folded his arms and huffed in a blatant show of irritation for Catra, as if she was somehow supposed to know and was being rude for asking.

“Read the reports. Find out what the issue is. Write it down there. Put it there.” He explained pointing at different baskets with stacks of paper on the desk.

“Okay. Great. Got it. Um, wh—” Catra turned around to ask a question, but the man had disappeared. “I guess I’ll get started then. Geez, rude much.” Although the explanation she was given left much to be desired, Catra managed to figure it out and fell into a nice rhythm of getting the work done. Most of the reports were standard: different departments claiming that they needed a specific material or resource to continue smooth work, Some people needing replacements for something, stuff like that. Then there was a stranger group of reports. There was mention of some kinds of experiments and plans. They were written avoidantly, presumably to keep whatever information that lied in the context hidden away safely. It gave Catra a weird feeling. Nonetheless, she ignored the bad vibes and went on with the process. Whatever was going on there wasn’t any of her business. She was only concerned with doing her job so that she could pay to live.

Catra was happy to escape for a few minutes by the time her lunch break came around. She hadn’t brought anything with her today except a handful of cough drops that had been in her pocket for over a month. That didn’t matter much to her though. She was just glad to be able to step out and stretch in the fresh air, given that her neck and back were extremely stiff from sitting in that chair and looking down at papers for such a long time. But her lunch break sadly didn’t last forever and she had to return to the cramped office space for another few long hours of hunching over papers and rude co-workers. Was it crazy to say that she missed Lonnie picking on her all of the time and the angry customers getting in her face?

-

A bot lurched into the air, slamming itself down in front of the group of heroes who were huddled together over by the entrance to the street, trapping them between it’s huge mass and the brick building on their other side. They had gotten the alert of an attack in a heavily populated area moments before and rushed over. Since there were more people around, and thus more chance of civil lives in danger, they thought it best to bring in the full team. However, that hadn’t seemed to have worked out quite like they planned, given that they were now all trapped by the enormous piece of metal blocking their way to the scene.

“What are we going to do now?” Perfuma questioned urgently, looking around at their predicament.

“We do what we do best. Improvise.” Adora drew her sword from where it rested at her hip, leaving the rest in questioning.

“Okay? But that doesn’t really work in this situation,” Marmista said. Adora ignored her, using the hilt of her sword to knock a few loose bricks on the side of the building out of place, widening the space in a small gap between the wall and the bot’s side. She used the other end of her sword to pry the space open some more, pushing at it with as much force as she could muster, but it was enough for them to squeeze out of the space with the right amount of effort. “Or maybe it does, apparently,” Mermista corrected. Climbing through the hole after the others.

“Team up and spread out. Our first priority is getting these people out of the danger zone. Try not to engage in combat until—”

“Don’t fight unless you have to when there’s extra targets around. Action.” The team scattered, running to different groups of people, urging them to get to safety. She Ra spotted a woman with purple hair standing dangerously close to a bot and rushed over to her.

“You can’t be here, ma’am,” She said, eyes darting from her to the bot, hoping it wouldn’t choose to strike until she could get this woman to safety.

“Hm? Oh, don’t mind me. I’m just taking observations.” She all but ignored She Ra’s words, continuing to fiddle with something she was holding.

“Is there any way that you could observe from a safe distance?” She Ra asked, only a little impatient. “It’s too dangerous for you to be this close.”

“Well, that wouldn’t do me much good, now would it?” She Ra couldn’t tell if that statement was meant to be sarcastic or genuine. Either way, she still had to get her out of the area.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry but—”

“She Ra! We need you over here!” Bow called out signaling her over to him. Adora looked between him and the woman, torn in her duty.

“Go on about your business, She Ra.” The woman waved her off, only looking up at her once, then returning to her work. “I’ll just be here doing my work. The bots won’t even notice me unless I react.” The woman’s statement was confusing, but Adora didn’t have the time right now to unpack it. She had way too many matters to attend to.

“You—ugh—just” Adora swiveled her head one last time, before deciding that she likely wasn’t going to get the response she needed from this woman. “At least tell me you’ll get to safety whenever you’re finished with whatever you’re doing.”

“Why would I stay after I finish? Wouldn’t that be kind of pointless?” Adora wasn’t entirely confident in that answer, but she left anyway. She had to get to other people so that they would be safe. She left before she could hear the purple haired woman’s next words. “Besides, I believe I’ve already gotten the information that I need.”

-

The last thing Catra wanted to be doing after an extremely exhausting, truthfully terrible first day of work was stand in the rain. It had already been a frustrating enough day without the thought of having to walk home in the pouring weather. She would text Scorpia to ask her to come pick her up, but Scorpia was out of town visiting her moms today, so that option was out. She considered staying under the small protected canopy outside the building until the rain at least died down, but she wasn’t sure how long that would be. Still, it was the best sounding option she had at the moment. Lucky for her, a certain someone happened to be driving by and saw her standing outside. A sleek gray car pulled over in front of Catra, and someone shielded from Catra’s vision by an umbrella emerged from the driver’s side of the vehicle. They started running towards Catra through the rain, inducing a brief panic for Catra. Upon a closer look, however, relief swept over Catra. Turns out it wasn’t some random guy charging at her. It was just Adora running to get out of the rain.

“Hey! What are you doing out here?” The blonde asked when she approached her, panting slightly from running in the cold rain.

“I just got off work,” Catra replied, nodding back to the building behind her.

“You like to hang out outside your work building when you get off?” Adora snarked, to which Catra rolled her eyes.

“Ha ha. I’d actually much prefer to go home, take a nice bath, and sleep, but my roommate is out of town today, so I don’t have a ride home, and I am so not walking home in this weather.”

“Do you need a ride?” Adora asked, gesturing towards her car. “I could take you home if you want.”

“That would be amazing actually,” Catra sighed in relief.

“Long day?” Adora asked, sharing a sympathetic smile and extending the umbrella towards her.

“You have no idea,” Catra breathed out in exhaustion. She stepped under the umbrella with Adora, trying to get as close of her as possible to save room. They ran as in sync as they could through the rain to get to the car, their backsides getting a little wet, but otherwise unscathed. Adora held the umbrella higher so that catra could get in dry, then ran over to the drivers die and hopped in.

“Well, buckle up. I’ll even buy you dinner to make up for your long day of work.” Catra didn’t refuse the offer. She was way too tired to argue about the semantics of paying her back. So, instead, she accepted it gratefully.

“Thanks,” was all she said as she buckled her seatbelt and leaned back in the car seat, enjoying the warmth and comfort.

-

Instead of dropping Catra off at her apartment, they ended up picking up pizza and going to Adora’s house. It had actually been Catra’s idea. She normally wouldn’t want company, especially after the day she’s had, but Adora was just different for her; She craved Adora’s company. So, after Adora’s offer of buying Catra dinner, she suggested that they eat together. Adora, of course, was ecstatic at the proposal.

“Y’know,” Catra mumbled through a mouthful of pizza. “I don’t usually like pizza, but this is heavenly.”

“I know right! It’s my favorite place to go after a long day,” Adora said, taking a bite from her own slice. “Speaking of, do you want to tell me about yours?

“Nothing much to talk about really. My new job wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I got too hyped for it. Also, my back hurts from leaning over a desk all day.” It was a shortened and less nuanced version, but Catra didn’t feel like going into detail about how shitty her life is. She just wanted to enjoy her pizza and forget about the whole thing until tomorrow.

“I’m sorry,” Adora said sympathetically.

“Don’t be. You didn’t do anything. Plus, you got me pizza and lended me comfy clothes. You’re practically an angel as far as I’m concerned.” Adora laughed at the exaggeration and how Catra gratuitously inhaled the rest of her food. “What about you? How has your day?” Catra switched the subject.

“Tiring,” Adora sighed. “But I’m used to that.”

“Are they keeping Etheria’s best public safety administrator on her toes?” Catra joked, nudging the other girl.

“Huh—” Adora squinted her eyes in confusion for a moment, then almost jumped when she remembered. “Oh! Yeah. Yup, they really are.”

“You okay? You sound brain damaged?” Catra leaned forward, teasingly tugging at Adora’s face in a mock examination.

“I am not brain damaged,” Adora scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“You sure? You seem pretty brain damaged to me— Ah! Hey!” Catra suddenly found herself pinned against the back of the couch. Adora had moved forward knocking Catra back and holding her there. The larger girl was now casually leaning against Catra, keeping her trapped.

“What? I’m not doing anything,” Adora said, trying to sound as innocent as possible, but with a smile that showed that gave it all away. Catra tried to wrestle her way out, but ended up knocking the both of them to the ground. Yet, Adora still managed to keep hold of the situation and landed on top of Catra.

“That is so not fair! You have your big, strong woman muscles to help you out!” Catra huffed, pushing at said muscles in an attempt to be free.

“Oh please! Like you’re not just as strong as me!” She was right, in a way. Catra could definitely hold her own. She might not have the same developed muscles like Adora did, but she was still strong, especially in her legs. However, that didn’t really help when she couldn’t barely move.

“Yeah, but I can’t do anything when you're crushing me with your fucking biceps!” Catra made sure to push extra hard at Adora’s shoulders for emphasis, managing to successfully create an extra inch of space between them for a couple of seconds.

“Do you even know what biceps are?” Adora laughed down at her.

“Oh no! You aren’t distracting me that easily!” Catra regained some dignity when she took Adora off guard and flipped them over. Adora grunted when she hit the ground, then started fighting back to get the upper hand again. This caused the two of them to latch on to each other as they rolled around on Adora’s living room floor, tumbling over each other again and again as they playfully, shoved and jabbed and tickled each other. Once they both ran out of energy, they fell over next to each other, giggling like little kids. Adora panted, running her fingers through her messy hair that escaped her ponytail long ago.

“I don’t think I’ve had this much fun since—” Catra nodded, panting as well.

“—Since we were kids. Yeah.” They laid together on the floor, catching their breaths in silence. Then, Adora turned towards the other girl and spoke up.

“Hey, do you remember that time we said we were going to marry each other?” Adora asked, propping herself up on her elbow to look at Catra.

“Oh my gosh, yes!” Catra laughed, shaking her head. “We were so—”

“Innocent?” Adora finished.

“Well, I was going to say stupid, but I guess that sounds better.” Catra sat up and grabbed her phone, groaning when she saw the time. “I should probably get home before it gets too dark.”

“Oh, alright,” Adora said, her face falling a little at the thought. “Do you need a ride home?”

“Nah. It’s not too dark outside right now and I could use the exercise,” Catra told her, standing up and starting to collect her things. “You should probably take a nap or something. Not to be rude or anything, but you look really tired.”

“I’ll try.” They shared a short hug before Catra walked to the door. “Be careful, okay?” Adora said.

“Will do, princess.” Catra said in return. They exchanged numerous glances of wordless care until Catra slipped out the door and closed it shut behind her.

-

_"Do you think we'll ever get married?" Adora asked I'm a whisper. The two of them were laying in Adora's bed, side by side. They were supposed to be asleep, but they rarely ever fell asleep when they were supposed to. Catra was also supposed to be in her own bed, but that rarely ever happened too._

_"I sure hope not. Boys are icky," Catra whispered back from under the thin covers._

_"Yeah," Adora sighed, sadly. Catra came up from under the covers and propped herself up on her elbow to look at Adora._

_"Why? Did you want to get married?" She asked. Catra couldn't see her well in the dark, but she could tell Adora was nervously biting her lip just from her tone of voice._

_"No. Yes? No?" Adora hid her face with the covers in confusion and embarrassment. "Ugh! It's complicated."_

_"How is that complicated?" Catra scoffed with a slight snicker._

_"I do want to get married one day, but I don't want a husband." Adora turned away from Catra as soon as the words left her mouth, her hands still covering her face in embarrassment. "I know it sounds weird. Forget I said anything."_

_"Actually, that makes a lot of sense," Catra said, pulling Adora back over by her shoulder so that they were facing each other again._

_"It does?" Adora questioned, peeling her hands from her face._

_"What if we got married, but didn't get husbands?" Catra suggested._

_"How would we get married then?" Adora chuckled, as it was the most obvious flaw in her plan. "You kind of need a groom for a wedding, silly."_

_"But what if we didn't? What if there was another bride? We could have a wife instead of a husband!" They still couldn't see each other in the dark, but both girls brightened at the thought. The idea of marrying a man never seemed appealing to either of them. Whenever the adults or classmates mentioned being with a boy, specifically whenever they referenced one of them being with a boy, Catra would recoil in disgust and Adora would cringe. So, understandably, the idea that they could get married without having to have a boy involved was game changing._

_"You can do that?" Adora asked, wide eyes and grinning at the suggested solution._

_"Well, if boys can do it why can't we?" Catra reasoned with a small shrug._

_"Then, I want you to be my wife, Catra," Adora proudly proclaimed._

_"Really?" Catra asked, like it was unbelievable that Adora would want to marry her._

_"Yeah! Let's get married one day and be each other's wives!" Adora exclaimed excitedly._

_"You're such a dork!" Catra laughed, flicking Adora's nose._

_"Is that a yes or…" Catra jabbed at Adora's side, sending them both into a fit of laughter that they had to quiet with pillows so that they wouldn't wake anyone else._

_"Yeah, okay. Let's get married or whatever when we're older." Catra tried to sound as disinterested and cool as she could, but she couldn't stop the smile on her face from seeping into her words, making Adora's smile grow even more._

_"You promise?" Adora asked, extending her small pinky finger in between them._

_"Fine. I promise." Catra linked her pinky finger with Adora's, sealing their promise in the best way they knew how to. Adora sneakily pulled them together using their connected hand. Catra squealed at first, earning them an angry shush from a kid in the bed next to them, but then relaxed into the embrace. They fall asleep like that nestled into each other with the thought of becoming wives at the front of their minds._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it might seem like I'm dragging things out (and I kind of am) but I swear I have good reason! Once again, I'd like to give a disclaimer that I have no idea how jobs work (even though I'm literally taking a business class), so I am completely guessing and trying to make it fit within the universe. As always, I hope you enjoyed and thank you for all of the support!


	10. Painful Memory

_Adora’s heart was racing. Her chest felt constricting, like it was crushing her from the inside out. She was slowly sinking into the ground below her, unable to move her feet to escape. Before her stood her cousin and former guardian, staring her down with cold, hardened eyes, much different from the soft, warm, caring ones that Adora remembered her for._

_“Mara! Help!” Adora gasped out harshly, trying to reach out to her. Mara came closer to her, but made no effort to help her. She only watched with dead eyes as Adora continued to sink down into the nothingness beneath her. Adora thrashed about, searching for any solid ground she could grab onto and gripping tightly to it._

_“I can’t help you, Adora. I’m gone.” She walked closer and gently pressed her shoe down on the remaining fingers keeping Adora afloat. “How can you help others when you didn’t help me? When you can’t even help yourself?”_

_“No! No!” Adora gasped out, struggling to breathe. She felt her fingers losing grip as Mara’s foot increased its pressure on them. With just a little more pressure from Mara’s foot, Adora lost her hold and fell away, becoming fully submerged in the nothingness below. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. She tried to struggle, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t even think with the heaviness of her head and the millions of voices whispering about her failure._

Adora’s eyes snapped open and she shot up, gasping for air. She felt her sheets under her and pillows behind her, reminding her that she was in her bed. She was okay. A shaky hand reached over to the nightstand, grabbing the ringing phone that woke her up from her nightmare. She swiped up to answer the call and held the phone up to her ear.

“Hello?”

“Good morning!” Bow cheered happily. “Me and Glimmer are out doing some stuff and I figured I’d call to see if you wanted to have breakfast with us.” Adora brought her other hand up to her ear to steady the shaking hand that was holding the phone there.

“Y— Yeah. Breakfast sounds good.” Adora cursed herself at the clear hitch in her breath that she couldn’t keep hidden over the phone.

“Are you okay, Adora?” Bow asked, his voice changing tone quickly. “You sound out of breath.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just finished my morning run.” Adora still hated lying, but she was getting better at these small lies. She just had to hope that she had gotten good enough to convince her friend. And, apparently, he had.

“Already? You must have gotten an early start this morning.” He still seemed a little concerned, but didn’t question it.

“Yeah,” Adora breathed out. At least she got in her cardio for the day. “So, uh, where are we eating?”

“I’ll let you know when I get an answer out of Glimmer. You can go change or whatever you need to do. I’ll text you.” Glimmer scoffed defensively on the other end of the phone.

“Okay cool. Talk to you later, then.”

“Talk to you later! Bye!” The call ended with a beep. Now that she wasn’t shell shocked from her haunting dream, it was time to actually start her day. Hopefully a nice, hot shower could knock the rest of the adrenaline out of her system.

-

Catra and Scorpia were both anticipating the next time Entrapta was supposed to come by, mainly Catra. According to her message in the group chat earlier that week, she had visited a battle site and made some kind of breakthrough. That being said, Catra readily opened the door when Entrapta knocked about five minutes ago.

“So, what’s the news?” She asked inquisitively.

“I was able to obtain some incredibly helpful information the other day during the attack near the shopping center,” Entrapta answered, pulling out her computer and a small pouch from her bag, then dumping the pouch of flash drives out.

“How helpful are we talking about here?” Catra inquired.With Entrapta, helpful could range from a possible shoe size to address.

“Well, I have these audio and video recordings,” the woman said, holding out a few small flash drives, which Catra eagerly took out of her hand.

“Sweet. Thanks, Entrapta,” She thanked, observing the small tech pieces in her hand.

“Oh, and I know her name,” Entrapta said casually, way too casually for the type of news that it was. Catra froze in shock, then leapt into manic.

“What?!” Catra shrieked, tossing the recordings onto the table in favor of this new information. “Why didn’t you lead with that?!”

“I have tiny snacks!” Scorpia announced, walking into the room with a tray of small foods.

“Oh! I love tiny foods!” Entrapta exclaimed, taking a tiny cupcake off of the tray. While the other two enjoyed homemade small delicacies, Catra was still stuck on the fact that Entrapta just told her that she knew the answer to what Catra had been trying to figure out.

“Woah, hold on. You just said you know who She Ra is?” Scorpia gasped looking to Entrapta for confirmation. Entrapta nodded, mouth full of tiny cupcakes. “Who is it then?”

“Oh, I can’t tell you.” Catra’s face dropped to the floor.

“You—” Catra’s eye twitched in annoyance. She took a deep, calming breath, trying hard to keep her cool. “Why exactly can’t you tell me?”

“That would be too easy,” Entrapta said, as if it were that obvious. “Also, it would violate the laws of knowledge and the scientific process,” She explained.

“If you can’t tell me who she is, why did you even agree to help in the first place?” Catra asked in the lowest and most calm voice as she could muster.

“Oh, don’t worry. It won’t take you long to figure out once you’ve gone through those recordings and the papers that I gave you.” She paused, then revised the statement. “Maybe even before then.”

“How will—” Catra started, but she was interrupted by her phone ringing and vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out to see the caller and sighed. “Hang on. Adora’s calling me.”

“Who?” Entrapta asked curiously.

“Just an old friend of mine. Be right back.” She stepped away from the other two and walked into the other room. She swiped up and put the phone to her ear. “Hey, Adora,” She said in her usual greeting.

“Catra?” A hushed, frantic voice said back. Catra immediately sensed that something was wrong from the tone.

“Yeah?” Catra waited for Adora to say something more, but there was just silence aside from some rusting noises on the other line. “Adora? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. Everything—” There was a break and a faint muffled whimper. “Everything’s okay. Would you mind coming over? I’m sorry to bother you, but Glimmer and Bow aren’t picking up their phones.” She sounded small, scared, and not like Adora at all.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll be there soon.” Catra told her. Something was wrong. Adora wouldn’t have asked her to come over without telling her why if it wasn’t. Adora wouldn’t sound as scared or vulnerable if everything was okay.

“Thank you.” Adora whispered through the phone, then ended the call. Catra went back to the living room, where Entrapta and Scorpia were happily conversing.

“Scorpia, can you drive me to Adora’s real quick?” She asked, grabbing her jacket and shoving her phone and keys into the pockets.

“Yeah, sure. Is something wrong?” Scorpia responded, getting up and slipping her own jacket on.

“I don’t know. She didn’t sound okay.” Catra said, honestly.

“You’re going to see Adora?” Entrapta asked, suddenly interested.

“Yeah, but don’t think we won’t come back to what we were talking about earlier. I want to know who She Ra is.” She was going to find out. Including Entrapta would not be for naught, but that was a battle for another time. There were currently more pressing matters.

“Technically speaking, you already do!” The older woman exclaimed. Catra stared at her grinning face and rubbed her temples.

“Nothing personal, but I really don’t have time for riddles right now. I have to make sure Adora’s okay,” Catra huffed. She didn’t really know what that was supposed to mean, nor did she care at the moment. She was just focused on getting out the door and making it to Adora. She had no clue what was going on, but if strong, fearless Adora was being vulnerable and showing she was scared, it had to be serious.

-

Minutes ago, Adora had been going through the contents of her spare closet, looking for anything she might be able to donate that she wasn’t using. Minutes ago, Adora found boxes that Mara had left behind, filled with things that Adora hadn’t seen since before her funeral. Minutes ago, she began to fall into the same pit that she always went down whenever she thought about Mara, feeling like she could have somehow prevented her death or that she wasn’t living up to what Mara saw in her. Minutes ago, she cut herself on broken glass in her less than attentive emotional state, causing her mindset of failure to multiply and weigh heavier on her heart. Minutes ago, the mix of the blood on her hand and the emotional low she was at currently sent her into a sudden panic. Now, Adora rocked back and forth on the cold floor of her kitchen. Silent tears streaked her red cheeks. She couldn’t think. All of her thoughts were overlapped by the harsh thumping in her head. The walls were closing in on her. She couldn’t breathe! She couldn’t— She couldn’t—

“Adora?” Someone called out from her door. “Adora, are you in there? Are you okay?” Catra. Catra was here. Catra would help her.

“Ca—” Adora tried to respond, to call back, but her voice gave out before she could get a word out of her trembling lips.

“Adora, I’m coming in.” The door swung open and in came Catra, eyes darting around in search of Adora. Once she spotted the panicked girl, then the dried blood on her hand and the floor, she rushed over. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“I—” Adora gasped out, unable to form a coherent thought, much less say one.

“Slow down, Adora. Take deep breaths,” Catra told her, kneeling down next to her slowly.

“I— I can’t! I can’t—” Adora gasped and hiccuped. Everything was tight. Too tight. She tried to breathe, but she just couldn’t. It was like all the air around her was being repelled by her lungs.

“Hey! Hey, it’s okay,” Catra said, gently placing a comforting hand on Adora’s back. She used her other hand to push down a sleeve of the sweater she was wearing and put that arm in front of Adora. “Here. Feel this. Think about what it feels like.” Adora reached out a shaky hand to feel the fabric.

“I— It’s soft,” she breathed out, looking to Catra for confirmation.

“Good. What else can you feel?” Catra asked in a low voice.

“The— I can feel the floor,” Adora muttered, the stability finding itself back to her voice. “And— And my clothes.” She looked back to Catra, who nodded and smiled softly at her. She already looked much calmer than when Catra had first arrived.

“Good. Now try to take deep breaths. I’ll even do it with you.” Catra took a deep breath, encouraging Adora to follow her lead, which she did. She guided Adora through a series of breaths, each one more stable and easy than the last, until Adora finally reached a steady rhythm. “That’s more like it.”

“I— I’m sorry that you had to see me like t— this,” Adora hiccuped out.

“Hey, I knew you when you were a bedwetter. I think it’s safe to see that we’ve both seen each other in much worse conditions,” Catra joked, successfully getting a small chuckle out of Adora. “Can you tell me what happened.”

“I—” Adora started to say something, but the panic rose up in her again at the thought. Catra noticed and was quick to step in before it got too serious again.

“It’s okay if you can’t. Let’s get you cleaned up. We'll talk about it if you’re ready after that, okay?” Adora nodded wordlessly. She let Catra help her off the floor and guide her to the bathroom. Catra washed off the cut on Adora’s hand and bandaged it up with conveniently placed bandages already out on the counter next to the sink.

“I was going through the closet and cut myself on some broken glass,” Adora whispered in explanation when Catra finished patching her up. “There’s more to it, but I don’t—” She broke off, the lump in her throat returning.

“That’s okay. You don’t have to say anything you’re not ready too,” Catra told her encouragingly, leading her over to her bed. “I’m gonna go clean up that broken glass so you won’t cut yourself next time. I’ll be right back.”

“M’kay,” Adora mumbled, her shoulders sagging with exhaustion as the last of the adrenaline from her panic left her. Catra hesitated at the doorway for a moment, then left the tired girl alone to clean up. Catra easily found the closet Adora was talking about since it was still open and there was a small trail of blood leading from there to the kitchen. She didn’t look in any of the boxes when she picked up the glass. That was for Adora to tell her when she was ready. She wasn’t going to disrespect that. Then, she located Adora’s mop and cleaned up the mess on the floor. She couldn’t help but wonder how long Adora had been bleeding and panicking before calling her and it made her heart ache for the blonde, especially since she had been there before.

“Okay. I got the glass out of the closet and cleaned your kitchen floor where there was blood.” Catra said, upon her return to Adora’s bedroom. Adora was curled up into herself in the middle of her bed, her blanket held to her chest.

“Thank you, Catra.” Adora smiled up at her gratefully.

“No problem.” Catra waited awkwardly at the foot of the bed before pulling out her phone. “I guess I’ll text Scorpia to come pick me up.”

“Can you stay? Please?” Adora asked, her hand subconsciously reaching across the bed towards Catra. She bit her lip nervously and retracted her hand when catra didn’t giver her answer at first. “I must sound really silly, and I hate to take up your time, but I really don’t want to be alone right now.” Adora looked up at her and—

“Yeah. I can do that.” How could Catra say no to her right now? “As long as I get to wake up to bacon again.” Catra experimentally sat down on the edge of the bed, not wanting to overwhelm Adora so soon after a panic attack.

“Sure thing, Catra,” Adora laughed her golden laugh with a hint of exhaustion, pulling Catra closer to her.

In that moment, with Adora’s perfect smile and kind eyes looking up at her, with her childhood best friend cuddling up next to her, Catra finally reached a conclusion: Shit, I’m falling in love again.

-

_"Well, maybe you don't love me like I thought you did!"_

_Those were the last words that Adora ever said to Mara. It was their first fight, and their last one. It was stupid, really. Adora couldn't even remember the silly little comment that started the argument. She just knew that one of them said something insensitive, which caused a domino effect of insults and hurtful words until they were both shouting at each other. Right after Adora had made her final statement Mara, who was the city's She Ra at the time, got the news of an emergency and left, the bad taste of the words simmering at the back of Adora's throat from the moment she walked out the door._

_Adora felt guilty for what she said. How could she not? She knew she had crossed a line. She knew she had been unfair. She just wanted to apologize, but Mara would likely not be home for a while. So, Adora decided to practice her apology while she fixed a meal for Mara to come home to, a meal that was never touched._

_Adora started getting anxious when the clock struck nine, then ten. She warmed the food up again, hoping that Mara would be home soon. Then, Angella and Micah knocked on the door._

_"Oh. Mr. And Mrs. Bright-Moon. Mara isn't home yet," Adora informed them, letting them into the house._

_"Adora, do you have your phone on you?" Angella asked. Her eyes were red and puffy and she was clinging onto her husband's arm._

_"No, sorry. It's been on charge in my bedroom. Why? Did you try to call me?" The couple exchanged a somber look with each other._

_"Why don't you sit down with us, kiddo. There's, uh, something you should know." Micah said, temporarily breaking away from his wife to gently guide Adora to the couch._

_"What's going on?" Adora asked, looking at the two skeptically, but sitting down with them nonetheless._

_"Before we say anything else, know that we'll be here for anything you need," Angella said, placing a motherly, comforting hand on Adora's knee. "You know, sometimes bad things happen to good people, and—" Her statements stopped short as she broke out into tears, gripping tightly onto Micah's shirt and burying her face into his shoulder._

_"Adora, we were just at the hospital." Micah told Adora, soothingly brushing through his crying wife's hair._

_"Was someone hurt?" Adora asked, fidgeting nervously. She didn't like the mood of the room or the sound of his words. Micah sighed sadly, lowering his head before speaking._

_"Mara got stuck in a building during her altercation today. There happened to be some kind of powerful weapon inside that triggered an explosion." Adora felt her heart drop, her eyes starting to water and her mouth becoming dry._

_"But— But she's okay, right?" Micah didn't answer and Angella sobbed into his shirt. "Mara is okay, right?" Adora repeated._

_"I'm so sorry, kiddo," Micah said, looking up at her with watery eyes of his own and reaching out to comfort her. Adora pulled back, standing up abruptly._

_"No. No, she can't be gone. She— She's alright. She has to be." She started pacing around the room frantically. Within seconds, her world fell apart right in front of her eyes. Guilt and pain and fear and loss all tore away at her aching heart. "I'm sorry Mara…" She whispered. And she repeated that same sentiment, out loud and in her head, throughout the night until she cried herself to sleep. Mara was gone, and would never get to see her, to talk to her, to apologize to her. Mara died without ever knowing how sorry Adora was. Adora didn't even get to say that she loved her. And now she was gone forever._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's projecting onto fictional characters as a coping mechanism hours!! A lot of interesting stuff will be happening soon that I'm really exited about, so please forgive me for dragging things out a lot. As always, hope you're enjoying the story!


	11. Working and Work

Adora landed another hit on the poor, defenseless punching bag in front of her, just like she had been for the last half hour. It probably wasn’t good for her to keep at it for that long, but a lot has been going on and she really needed to let off some steam in the best way she knew how. Punching her feelings out. It was a miracle that the poor bag hadn’t formed an imprint of her hand by now.

“I thought I’d find you here.” Adora jumped and spun around, relaxing when she saw Angella standing a few feet away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Uh, hi. Ma’am. Hi, ma’am.” Adora greeted awkwardly as the taller woman approached her. “Sorry. I’m sorta out of it today.”

“I can tell. That’s actually what I came here to talk to you about.” Adora walked over to the bench where her things were sitting.

“What do you mean?” Adora asked, taking out her water bottle from her bag.

“I mean you’ve been ‘out of it’ a lot more often lately,” Angella said, moving forward and joining her at the bench. Adora suppressed the urge to fidget and confirm that statement. So, instead, she focused her attention on ‘fixing’ the laces on her shoes.

“I’ve just been really tired,” Adora lied, shrugging. “Don’t worry, though. I’ll get it under control.”

“We both know it’s more than that, Adora.” Adora looked away, not wanting to show her face. It was the truth. Adora had just hoped that it was a truth she could hide away, or at least hide from her boss. “I’m only concerned for your health, Adora.”

“I’m perfectly healthy! Would I be able to fight bots every day if I wasn’t healthy?” Adora gave a punch to the air to accentuate her point. Angella gave her a stern look.

“You know that wasn’t what I meant,” she said, putting a hand on Adora’s shoulder and forcing her to look up at her.

“I— Listen, I really just want to finish up my training here, Mrs. Bright-Moon. With all due respect, is there a point to all this?” Adora didn’t want to be having this conversation. Not here. Not with Angella. Not now. Not ever, for that matter.

“As your boss,” Angella paused and her expression softened toward Adora. “And someone who likes to consider you family and cares for you deeply,” She added on. “I think it would be a good idea for you to take a small break—”

“No,” Adora immediately answered before she could even finish talking.

“—and focus on your mental health. Maybe talk to someone. I know an excellent grief—”

“Absolutely not.” Adora huffed, shoving the water bottle back in her bag and turning to go back to the punching bag.

“Adora, I can see that you’re overworking yourself.” Adora froze.

“I’m trying to make sure I can do my job right,” she said, unsure if she was telling herself or Angella more.

“You know, you’re so much like Mara sometimes that it scares me,” Angella chuckled sadly, the way she always did when talking about Mara.

“I am?” Adora asked. She didn’t think she was anything like Mara. Mara was a selfless hero who never gave up and cared for everyone. Mara was everything she wanted to be. Adora was a sad excuse for a She Ra who always fumbled on the smallest things.

“Oh, yes. I had to have this same intervention with her many, many times. She always told me that she felt as if she wasn’t good enough. After she adopted you she always had this idea in her head of being the perfect role model for you.” Adora met Angella’s eyes for the first time in their whole conversation. Angella’s eyes were somber, remembering old memories. It was hard to imagine Mara, the woman Adora always looked up to, the strong hero, admitting that she felt somehow less than. Then again, maybe that was part of the problem. Adora looked up to Mara, and maybe that was too much. What if Adora made Mara feel like she wasn’t enough by placing too high of expectations on her? Mara was always so strong for her, but Adora never wanted to pressure her into being strong. After all, Adora was far from strong. Adora was the weakest person she knew. “But, just like I always reminded her, no one is meant to be perfect,” Angella smiled down at Adora.

“Yeah.” Adora tried to smile back.

“So, will you consider seeing someone? Or at least taking a break?”

“Um—” Adora was saved by the bell when the alarm on her wrist went off. She sighed in relief and quickly grabbed her things. “You, uh, know the drill here. Gotta bounce.”

“Adora, we are not done talking about this!” Angella shouted sternly as Adora ran towards the exit.

“Sorry, ma’am! Duty calls!” Adora waved before pushing the doors open.

“Adora!” Angella called out. Adora didn’t listen. She was already out the door and on her way to the site, happy she could skip out on that conversation.

-

Catra sighed as she sat down on her bed, papers spread out in front of her. It took her a few days to find the time, but she was finally looking at everything Entrapta had gathered for her. She figured she would have to if she wanted to find out who She Ra was, since Entrapta clearly wasn’t going to tell her. That’s fine, though. Perfectly fine. She’d just figure it out on her own. That being said, she had no clue what she was doing or where to start. Sighing deeply, she hit play on one of the recordings that she had pulled up on her computer.

There wasn’t much to see as far as Catra could tell. It was mainly a lot of shaky footage of bots running around. Then, Catra spotted a flash of white and gold run across the screen and perked up. She Ra danced around the bots, running towards the camera, towards Entrapta. Catra found her eyes focused on She Ra. Looking for clues of some sort, obviously. Nothing interesting happened. The poor girl tried to convince Entrapta to leave. _Good luck with that, princess_ , Catra thought. Entrapta was a determined and goal driven soul if nothing else. Still, Catra didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary. She tried rewinding a couple of times to look for anything that she might have missed, but everytime she found herself somehow distracted by the shiny woman on the screen, focusing a little too much on the muscles of her arms. _Work just has me tired_ , she thought to herself, searching for assurance. It had to be that. What else could it be?

“Ugh,” Catra shouted in frustration. She threw all of the papers off of her blankets, sending them flying across her room. “I can’t focus! I can’t do this right now!” She got up from her bed and took off to the kitchen. She was just not in the mood or mindset for mind games. She was just going to grab some food and go to bed. She’d just come back to it later or something.

She left the laptop running when she left the room and the video was still going. If Catra had stayed, maybe she would have seen. If she had just stuck around and kept watching for a minute more, maybe she would have found the answer to her questions. Not long after Catra left the room a muffled audio played from the computer. One of She Ra’s hero friends called out to her in the heat of the battle. Unknowing that there was anyone around to hear, much less record the small slip up, they called out “Adora!”

-

Adora didn’t think she would be spending her afternoon in a bland hospital room today, but here she was. It wasn’t that big of a deal, considering how many times she’d been here before. Her injuries didn’t even bother her that much either. There was a much more fearsome force for Adora to be afraid of instead of a little pain.

“Where is she?” She heard Angella almost scream from the hallway. “Oh my goodness! Thank goodness you’re okay!” The woman exclaimed, rushing into the room with Micah, Glimmer, and Bow trailing behind her. She all but squeezed the breath out of Adora’s lungs with a crushing hug.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Adora croaked, her friends now by her side and squeezing the life out of her. Angella stepped back to give her a stern look, as did everyone else in the room.

“Adora, this is the fourth time you’ve been in the hospital this week! It’s a miracle you’re evel alive!” Bow chided.

“Okay, I see what you’re saying, but—”

“Adora, you could have died!” He yelled at her in desperation.

“Are you kidding me?” Glimmer huffed, rolling her eyes at Adora’s insistence.

“—but I’m fine!”

“That’s what you say every time you get hurt.” Micah scolded.

“Because it’s true! I’m not wrong!” Adora insisted, moving to cross her arms, but retracting back and hissing in pain when she was reminded where exactly she had gotten hurt.

“But you are!” Micah said, stepping forward to fix one of Adora’s bandages for her. “Adora, we’re all scared for you. You can’t keep walking around like you’re invincible.”

“I don’t think I’m invincible,” Adora scoffed defensively. “It’s just that sometimes I have to make sacrifices in order to get a more favorable outcome. I’m just trying to do what’s best in the moment. If that means I end up getting a little beat up—”

“A mild concussion and needing stitches is not ‘a little beat up’, Adora!” Glimmer snapped and gestured to the injury on Adora’s arm.

“My point is, I don’t mind getting hurt if it means I saved other people, innocent people, from getting hurt.” That was Adora’s philosophy. It was the mindset she first went into this job with and it was one that she intended to keep. She would rather get hurt than let any poor bystanders unwillingly take that on themselves. After all, she was the one who signed up for this job, including the risk that came with it.

“I didn’t want to do this because I know how much it will upset you, but I have to put my foot down.” Angella looked at Adora square in the eye, a look of command in her expression. “I’m placing you on temporary work leave.”

“A what?” Adora asked, genuinely confused.

“I’m forcing you to take a vacation,” Angella explained to her. “You will not come into the office unless it is a dire emergency and you will not fight in any altercations with the Horde for a week.” Adora gawked.

“What?!” she exclaimed, her voice raising in volume and in pitch. “You can’t do that!”

“I just did.” Her words had a tone of finality, leaving no space for questioning. “And I can make it longer,” she dared, raising an eyebrow.

“She Ra can’t just disappear for a week!” Adora tried to say, only to have her excuse shut down by Angella.

“There are others who can bear that responsibility,” she said simply. “For example, your friends,” she added, nodding to Glimmer and Bow.

“With how much Horde activity is picking up?” Adora asked. She knew she had struck a chord with the others based on the looks she received and they shared with each other. “We’ve already been struggling. We can’t lose a team member right now, otherwise we risk someone else getting hurt far worse than me.” Angella seemed to ponder Adora’s words. They had been having a lot of trouble keeping up lately, and everyone knew it. Not that the other heroes weren’t great, but they were no She Ra. She Ra had years of specific training, tech, and tactical knowledge to be Etheria’s declared savior. She Ra had skills and experience that just couldn’t be replicated so easily. Without it, who knows how they’d hold up against the Horde right now.

“Fine. You have one more chance,” Angella said, giving in at last. But it wasn’t completely over for Adora. “However, if you find yourself here again, you will be put on leave for a longer period of time. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Adora nodded, grinning. Angella seemed satisfied enough with that.

“That girl is far too much like Mara.” Angella whispered into her husband’s ear on her way out of the small room.

“I know, Angie. Too much for her own good.” Micah whispered back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is super short so I might go ahead and post another chapter to make up for it if I have the time


	12. Rise and Heartbreak

Catra usually hated her job, but that feeling was particularly strong right about now. There was a frenzy in the office due to whispers that the head of the company would be making a visit. Catra seemed to be the only one not acting absolutely batshit crazy. She ignored her workers scrambling to clean their workspaces before he arrived and the demanding managers coming in periodically, just focusing on doing her job correctly.

“Mr. Prime, sir!” Someone said, bringing all chaos to a halt. Catra didn’t look up. She didn’t need to in order to know that everybody else was. She, on the other hand, didn’t see a point in staring in awe at some dude in a pointlessly smooth, shiny suit. She definitely didn’t care enough about this place to pay any extra attention for a sliver of validation from some rich guy. As long as she didn’t do anything to cost her the job, she really couldn’t care less.

“Looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you today.” A silky, low voice asked from behind her. She glanced towards the voice to see a tall man in a white suit looking down at the large stack of papers in front of her.

“This is nothing. I’ve had way more than this before,” She told the man, shrugging and continuing to work.

“Interesting.” He drew out the word, delivering it in such a tone that made Catra rather uncomfortable. “And you aren’t fazed by my presence?”

“I shouldn’t have anything to worry about as long as I’m doing my job and don’t do anything stupid, right?” She held her breath, hoping that saying what she just said wasn’t the wrong choice, which, based on his next words, it wasn’t.

“You’re a clever girl, Catra,” he complimented in his weirdy smooth voice.

“You know my name?” Catra asked, looking up at him from the report. The broad man bellowed, even his laugh sounding off putting.

“Of course. You are one of the ones I hand picked for a promotion, are you not?” Catra blinked. She hadn’t expected him to try and be so personal with her. It was kind of unsettling. Then again, everything about Prime felt unsettling as far as Catra could tell.

“Well, yeah, but I thought that was just some kind of lottery. I didn’t think you’d actually know who I was.”

“I’m much too selective with who I allow in the protected spaces of this fine company to let people in without doing extensive research first.” Catra nodded, not really knowing what to say to that. “Have you not noticed anything strange in your work?” A strange question to ask, but Catra wasn’t about to bring that up. After all, he was the CEO.

“I don’t think it’s my place to stick my nose where it shouldn’t be, sir. I’m here to do my job and go home.” Prime seemed to like that answer.

“A very wise and admirable decision.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“You know, you’re not like most of the others,” Prime noted. Catra didn’t respond. She didn’t even look up. She really didn’t want to look this guy in the eyes with how unsettled she was right now. “You’ve made yourself quite noticeable, Catra. Perhaps I might recommend you for a little something I’ve been working on. Have a good rest of your day.” Catra heard his heavy footsteps as he walked away from her desk, followed by some gossipy whispers from nearby co-workers once he was gone. Catra, still very unsettled, tried to stay focused on her work.

-

“I’m just saying, I don’t understand why we can’t just have, like, an agreement to start over,” Glimmer said, grabbing another fry off of her plate.

“You can’t just ‘start over’ the entire world economy, Glimmer. I love you, but that’s not how economics work.” Bow sighed. They had been having the same conversation for the past twenty minutes, and for the past twenty minutes Bow had been trying to explain to Glimmer why you couldn’t just make more money to solve poverty and debt. Glimmer wasn’t buying it.

“And why not?” Glimmer asked, throwing her hands up.

“Because it just isn’t.” Bow had explained the same concepts over and over again, and he was finally at the point of giving up. Unlucky for him, Glimmer was still going strong.

“If everyone is in debt to each other, why don’t we all agree to forgive all debts and start over? It’s as simple as that!”

“But that’s not—”

“What do you think, Adora?” Glimmer interjected Bow’s statement, turning the conversation over to their blonde friend, who wasn’t paying attention to anything the two of them were talking about. She was smiling down at her lap, where her phone was resting, allowing the other two to blabber on. “Adora?”

“Huh?” She said, snapping her head up from her phone.

“Were you even listening?” Glimmer asked huffily.

“Um, yes?” The other two gave her a look of doubt. “Kind of?”

“Let me guess. You were texting Catra. Again.” Judging from the bright red blush creeping up on Adora’s cheeks, Glimmer assumed that she had gotten that guess right and leaned back in her booth with a satisfied smirk.

“Maybe,” Adora said sheepishly, retreating shyly into her hoodie.

“You sure do talk to her a lot. Is there, by any chance, something going on there?” Bow nudged, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

“No! I don’t know why you would think that,” Adora responded a little too hastily, the red blush glowing brighter on her flushed cheeks.

“I was just curious,” The boy said, raising his arms in innocence. Adora huffed, looking away from the two.

“Me and Catra are just friends. We’ve known each other—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Glimmer cut her off, rolling her eyes. “You’re childhood best friends and whatnot. We get it.”

“Besides, we already had that conversation. It doesn’t excuse anything,” Bow pointed out.

“Yeah, well, there’s nothing between us. So, you don’t have to worry about that.” Sure, Adora might think that Catra was pretty and funny, and she might feel pulled towards Catra like she never has with anyone else, and maybe she happens to get inexplicably excited whenever Catra texts her, and maybe she gets this fuzzy feeling in her heart whenever they’re around each other, but that didn’t mean there was anything there. Or maybe she did feel something, but that didn’t matter. Catra didn’t like Adora like that.

“Ugh! Stop wimping out and ask her out already. I know you have the hots for her, so just do it.”

“Glimmer!” Bow fussed.

“What? You know you were thinking the same thing,” She bickered back. Adora’s phone, which was not sitting on the table, chimed. Adora picked it up and smiled at the screen, resuming her texting and ignoring her friends hammering questions. “Adora, are you texting her again?”

“No.” The phone chimed again as she said that and Glimmer gave her a look. “Yes.”

“Adora, be honest with us. Do you like Catra?”

“Maybe? I don’t— It’s— She—” Adora groaned loudly, hiding behind her hands. She thought about spending time with Catra and talking to her and just everything that they’d done together. She thought about how happy she was with Catra, and finally gave in. “I think I might, but I’m not going to lose her friendship again just because she has a pretty face.”

“I don’t think Catra would end your friendship just because you told her how you feel,” Bow told her in assurance, reaching across the table to give her a supporting hand squeeze.

“But you don’t know that!” Adora cried out.

“You know what? If you won’t do it, then I’ll do it for you. Give me your phone.” Adora didn’t have time to question or respond because Glimmer had already grabbed her phone and was typing something into it. A small sound came from the device, showing that she had sent a message, and she handed it back to Adora. “There. Handled.”

“How much trouble did you get me in?” Adora asked, looking down at her phone and back at Glimmer.

“None! Next thing you know you’ll be smooching with the girl of your dreams!” Glimmer said with a proud grin. Adora rushed to check her messages to check the damage.

_I think you’re cute ;)  
Wanna go out for dinner with me tonight?  
Salineas Seafood?_

“I’m doomed.”

-

“Drop it, Scorpia,” Catra said, taking her food out of the microwave and swiftly exiting their shared kitchen. “I don't like her like that. End of story.” Scorpia had been pestering her all evening, ever since she got home from work, and Catra was starting to get very annoyed.

“Oh, come on! You can be honest with me!” Much to Catra’s dismay, Scorpia was still talking, following her into the living room. Apparently, Scorpia didn’t understand what ‘end of story’ meant.

“Apparently not, since I’m being honest right now,” Catra mumbled under her breath.

“You spent our lunch the other day talking about some joke she told you. You never do that, wildcat!” Catra’s cheeks became flushed. Okay, that was a mistake on her part. “Heh, it kind of reminds me how I acted when I had a crush on you.” Scorpia chuckled at the long passed memory.

“Me and Adora go way back. There’s no way I have a crush on her.” That was a lie. There was absolutely every way that she had a crush on Adora. As a matter of fact, their past together is part of what made her like Adora so much.

“I’m just saying that I don’t think I’ve ever seen you as happy as you are when you’re talking about her. I’m glad to see you happy, but I don’t want to see you heart broken before you even give it a shot.” Catra really wanted to be mad with her friend right now. She really wanted a reason to be mad, but she couldn’t be mad at her for that. She couldn’t be mad at her for seeing the truth and wanting her to be happy.

“Ugh, fine! I have feelings for Adora!” Catra admitted, flopping over on the couch dramatically. “I’ve actually had feelings for her since we were kids, but neither of us knew you could like girls until we were older and then stuff happened between us and…nothing ever happened.”

“Well, have you ever told her how you felt?” Scorpia asked, calmly sitting down on the couch next to her.

“No, and I don’t plan on it.” As far as Catra was concerned, Adora never had to know about Catra’s little crush on her.

“Aww! Why not?” To be honest, Catra asked herself that same question every single day.

“Because—” Catra’s phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and checked the notification. “Speak of the devil.”

“Adora?” Scorpia inquired, leaning over to try and get a peek at the screen.

“Yep,” Catra confirmed, pulling up the message. Her heart stopped momentarily when she processed the word on the screen. That sounded a lot like a date proposal. Like, a lot like a date proposal. “She wants to meet me for dinner. Oh my gosh. I think she’s asking me out.”

“Wait, really? That’s great!”

“What do I say?” Catra fumbled.

“Say yes!” Scorpia squealed. Right, obviously.

“I think she forgot my seafood allergy. She asked me to a seafood place,” Catra chortled.

“Then ask her out somewhere else,” Scorpia suggested. Catra nodded. Right, good idea, she thought, typing out a message.

_I don’t think so_  
I’m allergic, remember?  
Pick me up at 8, I’ll show you somewhere you’ll love 

“Okay!” Catra screamed out, putting her phone down and slapping a hand over her mouth. “I did it. Oh my gosh.”

“I knew you could, Wildcat!” Catra was grinning, something she usually didn’t do so openly, but that didn’t really matter right now. She had a date. She had a date with the girl she’s been in love with for years. She didn’t know that something would go wrong. She didn’t know that, through some technical error. Adora hadn’t received the last two messages she sent.

-

Adora nervously tapped her fingers against her phone, biting her lip in anticipation. She had become restless ever since Glimmer sent that message. Thoughts raced through her mind about all the possibilities, most of them bad.

“Calm down, Adora,” Bow tried to soothe the anxious girl.

“I am calm. I’m totally, completely calm.” She was, in fact, not calm at all.

“Everything will be alright. What’s the worst that can happen?” Adora was about to object and give a long list of many, many ways that things could go wrong, but Glimmer put a hand out telling her not to. “That was rhetorical, Adora. Don’t answer that.” Then, Adora’s phone made a sound and vibrated on the table. Everyone tensed up at the sound, staring at the device before Adora slowly picked it up and swiped her finger against the screen

“Is that her? What did she say?” Glimmer squealed and jumped over to Adora’s side. Bow shushed her, but moved to sit next to Adora as well. Adora unlocked her screen, holding her breath for Catra’s answer.

_I don’t think so._

“She—” Adora tried to scroll down, hoping that there was more to it, some kind of joke or explanation, but there was nothing. Adora felt her heart shatter into a million pieces from inside her chest. “I knew it was a bad idea.”

“Oh, Adora.” Bow pulled her in for a comforting hug. Glimmer rubbed a hand down her back in calming motions as she cried into Bow’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

“I think— I think I’m gonna go home now.” Adora pulled herself away from her two friends, wiping the wetness from her eyes. Her heart ached, and all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball on her bed and cry until she ran out of tears.

“You sure?” Glimmer asked, rubbing a hand her back one last time before giving Adora some space.

“Yeah,” she croaked back. She really didn’t want to spend the rest of her night crying in a restaurant booth. If she was going to cry, which she’d already deduced was unavoidable at this point, she’d rather do it alone in her room in the dark.

“We’re here if you need us, okay,” Bow said, giving her a sad look as she stood up to leave. She gave him a small nod, then headed for the door. She ended up crying halfway to her car, and then again all the way home. She tried to find comfort in the fact that at least her and Catra could still be friends, but that hope vanished the next morning when she tried to send a friendly text apologizing to Catra, only to realize that Catra had blocked her number, which led to more hurt and crying. 

-

Catra shivered as a cold breeze passed by her, dancing across her shoulders. It was a cold night, and it was only getting colder the later that it got. She was sitting alone on her steps wearing her nice clothes as she waited for Adora to show up. She pulled out her phone, checking for the time. She’d said eight. It was almost ten. The door behind her opened.

“Hey, wildcat. Still waiting on Adora?” Scorpia said sympathetically. Catra felt her drape a warm blanket over her shoulders, which she was extremely grateful for, considering that she’d been sitting in the cold for far too long.

“Not anymore,” Catra sighed. “I can’t believe I got fucking stood up. It’s like I’m just some fucking joke.” She would never have expected Adora of all people to do this to her, but maybe she misjudged her character. She felt like Adora had made a huge mockery of her. She was pissed, but even more so she was hurt.

“I’m sorry, wildcat,” Scorpia whispered over the wind, giving her a hug from the side. Catra shrugged from underneath her arm, too mad at Adora to be bothered too much by the touch.

“It’s whatever, I guess. I’m just really fucking pissed off now.” And she was. She was far beyond pissed at Adora. Adora, who she thought was the one person who would get her, the last person who she thought would do this to her, fucking stood her up. Adora hurt her. Adora broke her heart. Catra almost felt like crying. But she wasn’t going to cry. “Dammit, I’m crying.”

“Come inside and I’ll make us some hot chocolate. It’s freezing out here.”

“I’ll be there in a minute. Put some alcohol in mine,” Catra mumbled, staring down the street.

“In hot chocolate?” Scorpia asked, grimacing at the idea.

“Yep. Do it.” Scorpia didn’t argue with her. She went inside the house to prepare Catra’s concoction, leaving Catra alone like she asked. Catra took one more look down the street, as if Adora would somehow show up now. Even if she did, Catra would just say a few choice words, then kindly slam the door in her face. Maybe she’d land a punch or two. But Adora wasn’t coming, so she couldn’t do any of that. But she still wanted to at least say something, even if Adora wasn’t around to hear it. “Fuck you, Adora.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to put this chapter out there early since the last one was so short.
> 
> It physically hurt me to write this chapter so I hope it's good because my heart isn't. Seriously, my Mom was giving me weird looks because I was freaking out while writing.


	13. Products of Miscommunication

A couple of days had passed since Adora’s heart was shattered into a million pieces. Adora thought she was dealing with it well. She was not. She actually wasn’t dealing with it at all, subconsciously opting instead to keep herself busy with work, training, or cleaning her house, or something other marginally productive so that the subject wouldn’t even come up in her mind. And if an unwanted thought did happen to pop up in her head, she’d make sure to dismiss it right away and focus even harder on whatever task she was trying to complete in that moment. Today was the first time that she didn’t pile her workload up, since Bow wanted to make plans with her for lunch.

“Adora?” Bow called out from the door of the restaurant, looking around for his friend.

“I’m over here, Bow!” Adora called out back to him, waving him over to the table she was sitting out.

“There’s my favorite injury prone superhero!” He teased, leaning down to give Adora a hug, then sitting down across from her. “You haven’t ordered yet have you?”

“I have, but don’t worry. I ordered your usual so you wouldn’t have to wait so long.” Adora had gotten there early, and she knew what Bow usually ordered, so she figured that ordering their food in advance would be a good idea. Then she could get back to work quicker.

“So, how have you been feeling since...you know?” Bow asked tentatively, approaching the subject carefully.

“I’ve been fine,” Adora said, flashing him a bright smile to show off her point.

“Really? Because you know you can always tell me if you aren’t.” Bow reached over the table and took hold of Adora’s hand. Bow was an absolute angel, but he didn’t need Adora’s junk.

“Really. I’m fine. It’s just kind of weird. It’s kind of different.” Adora shrunk back a little in her seat.

“How so?” Bow questioned leaning forward over the table. Adora sighed.

“Well, she hasn’t talked to me since then. I tried to text her, but apparently she blocked me.” Adora’s hands clenched in her lap at the memory of waking up to the heartbreaking realization that Catra didn’t want to talk to her ever again. It still hurt, but life goes on and so would Adora.

“That really sucks. I’m so sorry Adora,” Bow sympathized.

“It’s fine. I’m fine,” Adora assured him. “It’s on me, really. I guess I pushed a little too far and made her uncomfortable.”

“Hey, don’t you start with that. This is not your fault,” Bow fussed, squeezing the hand he was holding comfortingly. “I don’t know why she decided to block your number, but it doesn’t mean anything you did was wrong. You tried. You made your move, but it didn’t work out. Catra blocking you is unexpected, but don’t let it drag you down.”

“Well, technically, Glimmer made the move, but I get your point,” Adora laughed off, trying to cover up the shakiness in her voice and the mood of the conversation. Then she thought about it, the very thing she had been avoiding. She missed Catra, even if the romantic feelings were unrequited. “I just wish I could talk to her still.”

“I know. I can’t imagine why anybody wouldn’t want to talk to you,” Bow said to her sweetly.

“I can,” Adora said under her breath, hoping Bow wouldn’t hear. He did, and he gave her a sad, stern look.

“Come here,” He said, pulling out the other chair next to him and motioning her over. Adora didn’t argue with him. She stood up and moved herself over to the other seat. Bow pulled her into a hug, squeezing her lightly. Without warning, she started sniffling. “Hey. It’ll be okay.”

“I’m sorry I’m such a mess right now,” Adora apologized, wiping at the pools collected in her eyes. She hated how easily breakable she felt. Bow was the last person that deserved to have to deal with her like this.

“First of all, you are not a mess, Adora. Secondly, it’s totally okay for you to cry or fall apart sometimes.” Bow’s kind words were almost enough to make her cry again. He was always like that, always the assuring one. If only Adora could let herself believe what he said.

“Thank you, Bow. You’re a really good friend,” She told him.

“Aww! You make me blush,” Bow joked. He gave her another hug before she returned to her seat. “So, when’s our food going to be ready because I am starving.”

-

Catra threw open the door of her apartment and stormed in. To say that she was having a bad day was an understatement. Catra was having a bad day, a bad week, a bad everything. Between the fiasco that happened with Adora the other night, a horrendous week at work, and Catra’s general lack of sleep, every line was getting crossed. Catra was at the point where she just felt like screaming and punching things.

“Kitty!” Scorpia exclaimed when she saw her roommate from the couch. “How was work?”

“Not in the mood,” Catra told her, keeping her answer short and sharp. She didn’t feel like carrying out pleasantries with either of them. “I’ll be in my room if you need me. Oh, and, don’t need me.”

“Are you okay, Catra?” Scorpia asked, taking concern with Catra’s curt tone.

“No, and I don’t want to talk about it.” As much as she loved Scorpia. She really didn’t want to deal with her happy, cheery friend thing. She just wanted to simmer in her anger like she was used to.

“I sense some tension coming from you,” Entrapta noted, stating the obvious.

“Yeah, no shit!” Catra shouted at her.

“Wildcat, are you still upset about what happened the other day?” Catra asked her softly, probably hoping to calm her down or ease her tense mood.

“Is it because of something with Adora?” Entrapta asked. That was the last straw for Catra. She didn’t even know what she was doing when she lurched forward, grabbing Entrapta tightly by the collar of her shirt.

“Shut it!” She yelled in Entrapta’s face, cheeks red with fury. Everything had been building up inside her and all just spewed out. Entrapta just happened to be the one to spill Catra’s anger over the edge, so she was the target of Catra’s outburst. “It’s none of your business, so just shut your fucking mouth. Stay out of it.”

“Hey, hey. Hey! Calm down, Catra. It was just a question.” Scorpia came in between them pushing Catra away from a confused Entrapta and forcing her to release her tight grip on Entrapta’s collar. Catra blinked for a second, collecting herself.

“Whatever,” Catra scoffed, stepping away. “I’m gone. Don’t come near me or call me or text me or anything else unless someone died. Actually just leave me alone. I don’t care if somebody’s dead or not.” The other two women watched as she stomped away into her room, slamming the door behind her.

“I’m sorry. She isn’t usually like this. She’s been having a rough time recently,” Scorpia apologizes, looking in the direction of Catra’s room with a concern ridden look.

“It’s okay. I’m predicting that the conflict will resolve itself eventually based on what I know of her and Adora.” Scorpia wanted to ask what she meant, but she figured that she’d find out anyway if she just waited. “Anyways, back to our game!” Entrapta exclaimed, returning her attention back to the board game the two had been playing before Catra walked in.

-

Adora flopped down face first onto the soft pillows of her bed. It was good to finally be home after a long day of responding to this emergency and that. Of course, her job never really ended, but the Horde usually went dormant during sleeping hours, thankfully. Adora went to reach for her phone to text, as was an impulse of hers, then remembered that she couldn’t. This was absolutely killing her. Getting rejected by Catra was one thing; She’d get over that eventually and Catra could still be her friend. Catra blocking her number made everything so different. It hurt worse than she ever could have imagined.

The more Adora thought about it, the more she blamed herself. If she could have just hid her feelings better, if she could have just kept it in, maybe she wouldn’t have lost a friend. It was like history was repeating herself. She lost Catra again, and it was her fault again. It was always her fault. Maybe it was a good thing that catra didn’t want to talk to her anymore. After all, she had never done Catra any good. Adora couldn’t stand up to Mrs. Weaver when they were younger, and Catra suffered for it. When Adora got adopted, she left Catra all alone. Adora was given everything she needed while Catra had to fend for herself. Adora didn’t make enough of an effort to keep in touch with Catra after they were separated. Adora wasn’t there when Catra was going through her hardest times. Catra was hurting and struggling while Adora was safe and sound. Adora was pushing too hard and Catra didn’t like it. Adora was being selfish, just like she always was. Of course Catra wouldn’t want to talk to her anymore. Adora always followed her around with misfortune. Besides, Adora knew she could be a little much sometimes. She knew she had flaws. Catra really deserved better anyway. It was better this way.

Adora looked over at the clock on her nightstand. It was five until midnight. She should probably get some sleep while she could, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen. She hadn’t slept more than a solid four hours a night in who knows how long. It was fine though. Really, she was fine. She’d been dealing with insomnia for most of her life; It just got a lot worse within the past year, after Mara passed away. Now her nights were spent staying up until unholy hours of the morning thinking about everything she’s ever done wrong. If she did manage to fall asleep for a few hours, she risked the chance of waking up in a cold sweat from a nightmare. It was kind of a lose lose situation. But it was okay. Adora was fine. Except she wasn’t. She knew somewhere inside that she wasn’t okay, but she just couldn’t bring herself to admit it. Not to herself, and definitely not to anyone else. The only one who was probably remotely close to knocking how not okay she actually was right now was Catra, and she blocked her.

“I can’t lose anyone else,” Adora said out loud to herself, curling into one of her pillows and holding onto the pillowcase like a lifeline. “I can’t lose anyone else,” she repeated tearfully.

-

Catra stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom, her thoughts trapping her to the mattress beneath her and forcing her to feel their weight. As much as she tried to, Catra couldn’t get Adora and what happened out of her head. Every now and then she would reach for her phone in habit to text Adora, then immediately stop herself when she remembered. There were moments when she would think about her and get so angry that she wanted to stop whatever she was doing so she could find and punch her. Still, there was a small voice that made an appearance every now and then, telling Catra that she must have done something wrong to lose Adora.

“Wildcat?” Scporpia called out in a muffled voice from outside Catra’s door.

“Go away. I don’t feel like talking.” Catra yelled back at her through the door.

“Well, I know, but I do. I need to know if something is wrong, Catra. I’m your roommate. More importantly, I’m your friend!” Scorpia really did care, and Catra knew it. Scorpia had been there when Catra was at her worst, and she’d been a really good friend throughout all of it. “Please,” she pleaded when Catra kept quiet.

“Fine. You have ten minutes,” Catra gave in, giving Scorpia the okay to slowly crack open the creaky door. The tall woman made her way over to Catra’s bed and took a seat on the edge of it.

“I know you’re still mad about...you know what, but I don’t want you to fall back into the place you were,” she said, a sad tone to her words. Catra knew what she meant. Catra remembered when she had first met Scorpia. She wasn’t a very good friend back then. She was bitter and spiteful all of the time. She had a slight drinking problem, which she never had the money for, but still somehow always found a way to get what she wanted.

“I won’t, Scorpia,” It wasn’t a good time for Catra, so she understood why Scorpia would be concerned. She couldn’t get mad at her for that.

“That’s what you said last time too, Catra,” Scorpia said, referencing back to many times when Catra fell back into that pit.

“I get that you’re trying to look out for me, and I really appreciate it, but I’ll be fine.” Catra really couldn’t be upset with Scorpia for being a good friend and making sure she was okay, but she still didn’t want to talk. She was fine, really. That is, if she tried hard enough. All she wanted— all she needed— was to wallow in her anger and self pity for a few hours.

“Wildcat, I—”

“Can’t you take a fucking hint? I don’t want to talk to you right now!” Catra snapped at her. Scorpia recoiled, then furrowed her brows with more concern on her face than before.

“Catra, I haven’t seen you like this since you were coming home drunk at three in the morning everyday. I don’t like it,” She said, a little louder and more stern than she had been speaking before.

“I’m sorry, Scorpia,” Catra apologized quietly. It was still hard for her to do. “I shouldn’t be acting like this, I know. I’m just a little overwhelmed at the moment.”

“I know you are. All I want is for you to talk to me about it. Don’t shut me out.” Scorpia gave her that smile, that stupid smile that Catra always felt bad saying no to because it was too genuine. Such a Scorpia thing to do.

“Okay. I’ll talk if that’ll make you happy,” Catra said, barely loud enough for Scorpia to hear.

“It would.” Scorpia smiled gently at her.

“I am still extremely angry at Adora. She made a fool out of me, and I won’t let anyone do that anymore.” Catra closed her eyes and took a deep breath, thinking back on everything. “I really thought I had my friend back, and we were actually having a good time talking. Then, she fucking stood me up. That was a shitty move that only shitty people do. So, I blocked her.”

“You blocked her?”

“Yeah. I don’t want to talk to a jerk that does stuff like that. The last time I cut ties might have been for studip reasons, but this time she literally left me out in the cold.” Catra blinked away the blurriness at the corner of her eyes. She swallowed the lump forming in her throat. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore right now. I’m gonna get some sleep.” She didn’t think she could keep talking about this. She didn’t think she had anything else she even wanted to say.

“Okay, wildcat. I’m glad that you’re at least talking to me.” Scorpia quietly left her room, closing the door behind her to give Catra the space she needed. Catra fell asleep not long after that, her mind weary from hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not me continuing to project onto fictional characters as a coping mechanism...
> 
> I know the last chapter left some open ends, and I know this chapter didn't exactly answer any of them, but everything will be tied up soon...ish. The next chapter is going to be LONG, so buckle up.


	14. Sudden Surprise

“Hey, She Ra? We kinda need some help!” Glimmer called out from behind a line of bots. Her, along with a young woman who happened to get caught in the crossfire had been backed into a corner.

“I’m sort of tied down at the moment!” She Ra shouted back, looking around at the net one of the bots shot at her, temporarily trapping her down.

“You might want to hurry up!” Glimmer blasted futilely in any direction she could.

“I’m trying!” She Ra huffed. She managed to reach her sword, which had fallen out of her grasp, and slash through the net to free herself. She then swung her sword around to fend off oncoming enemies and plunged the weapon into the bot that had trapped her, knocking it into the bot caging Glimmer in and putting them both out of commission. They helped the young woman to safety, making sure she was a safe distance from the scene before returning to the fight. For some reason, Glimmer stopped dead in her tracks before they could engage again. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Look over there.” Adora’s eyes followed to where Glimmer was looking and gesturing towards. To her dismay, it was a way too familiar sight. Catra was walking down the street as if nothing was going on around her. How she didn’t notice the giant bot following her was anyone’s guess.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” She groaned. Hadn’t Catra learned to stay away from these by now? “Watch out behind you!” She R lept back into action, running blindly into battle in order to get to Catra before the bot. Catra must not have heard Adora’s warning because she had not made any action to get away as the bot raised a heavy leg. Luckily, Adora made it to her before anything bad could happen. She swept up the clueless Catra in her arms, ignoring her yelp of surprise and many protests. Only when they were a safe distance away from any danger did Adora come to a stop and put her down.

“Been a while, princess,” Catra huffed when she was finally released.

“As much as I’m happy to see you again, but we have to stop meeting like this,” Adora told her. Catra smirked. Oh, what had she done now?

“Oh, we do?” She purred out. “But it’s so much fun, especially when you try to save me like some damsel in distress.”

“Are you calling yourself a damsel in distress?”

“Absolutely not. You’re the one who’s in distress. I’m perfectly fine.” Adora frowned. Great. Now Catra could be mad at her alias too. Catra must have noticed She Ra’s shift in mood, because she spoke up not long after. “Relax, princess. I’m messing with you.”

“Oh. Okay.” She Ra smiled her golden smile again, happy that Catra wasn’t actually mad at her— or at least she wasn’t mad at She Ra.

“Well, as much fun as this has been, I have to get to work. Thanks for brightening up my shitty week.” Catra smiled a cheeky smile. It almost made Adora forget about how she would probably never see that smile outside of uniform ever again. Almost.

“Yeah, uh, no problem,” She Ra stammered, nodding a little too enthusiastically.

“She Ra! Stop flirting with civilians and get your ass over here!” Glimmer shouted from across the street.

“I’ve got to go punch things.” She Ra chuckled, glancing from Glimmer back to Catra.

“Have fun, She Ra. See you around.” Catra turned around to leave, and, reluctantly, so did Adora.

“Seriously?” Glimmer hissed at her when she returned. “You’re going to flirt with her of all people? And right now?”

“I wasn’t flirting,” Adora reasoned. “She happened to be in need of saving. I happen to be in the business of saving people. All personal feelings aside, I still have to do my job.”

“You’re a disaster,” Glimmer groaned, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah,” Adora sighed to herself. “Yeah, I know.”

-

“Excuse me,” a monotone, irritated voice said from behind Catra’s desk.

“What’s up?” Catra asked spinning her chair around to look at the guy, who looked annoyed to have to be talking to her in the first place. Honestly, Catra couldn’t blame him.

“Mr. Prime wants to see you in his office.” He said in his plain voice. Catra blinked, not sure if she heard him right, or even if she was awake.

“Prime as in the big guy? The boss dude?” The guy nodded, annoyed. “He wants to see me in his office? His big, important office?” It seemed unbelievable. Catra literally couldn't believe it. Why would Prime want to see her? She’d only met him once. Plus, she was at way too low of a position to be on the radar of someone like him.

“Yes. I suggest you don’t act so informally in front of him if you value your salary,” the man snapped harshly, rolling his eyes.

“Right, okay. Can I get some—” He was already gone, just like he always seemed to do when Catra actually had questions. “Directions. Great.” She had no clue where she needed to go or when she needed to be there, but that was fine. She’d figured it out by herself before and she could do it again. Luckily, Catra remembered seeing a map of the building somewhere, so she was able to locate Prime’s office with only a small amount of difficulty and a lot of weird looks. Still, she eventually arrived in front of the intimidating doors. She was about to knock, when the door opened suddenly.

“Ah, Catra. Glad to see that you received my message.” He smiled a creepily charming smile down at her and stepped to the side. “Please, come in.” Catra stepped warily inside the large office, observing the expensive design of the space. Prime closed the door behind her and sat down behind his desk, motioning for Catra to sit as well.

“Uh, is something wrong, sir?” Catra asked as she sat down in the other seat across from him.

“No. Quite the opposite, actually,” Prime stated. He slowly and deliberately leaned back in his office chair, his figure towering over Catra even when seated.

“What?” Catra tried to keep her nerves intact, even when Prime smiled a rather foreboding smile over at her.

“I have this special project that I’m working on. It is extremely imperative to my success, and, as such, the security surrounding it is extremely classified. Only those who I’ve chosen to work on it know about it.” He slid a paper over to the other side of the desk for Catra to see. Catra didn’t look down. It didn’t seem real, or if it was it was shady at best.

“I don’t understand. Why are you telling me if it’s so top secret?” Catra wasn’t an expert in classified information or anything like that, but she at least knew that secrets were meant to be kept. Usually when you had something that was ‘extremely classified’, you wouldn’t go around sharing that information with people, especially someone in as low of a position as Catra.

“Because I want you to join the team,” Prime told her, still bearing that strangely off putting smile.

“I’m sorry, what?” Catra shook her head. She couldn’t have heard that right.

“I want you to be one of the lucky few to work on this new project,” the larger man affirmed. Okay, she did hear him correctly, but she was still taken aback by the suggestion.

“Me? Why me?” Catra questioned, puzzled and concerned. “I was literally working in customer service not too long ago. I have, like, zero credentials. I barely even graduated highschool.” It probably wasn’t the brightest idea to share your shortcomings with the head of the company that you work for, but something obviously made Catra special in Prime’s eyes, and Catra wanted to know what it was. Besides, Prime didn’t seem to care too much. He just threw his head back to let out a low bellow into the spacious room.

“I know much more about you than what you have on your resume, Catra. Too many people hide the truth on those things.” That was...a fair point, but suspicious nonetheless. If anybody else had said something like that, it would be considered dangerously on the line of stalker. But, of course, the rules were different for rich guys, no matter how creepy they acted at times. “I know certain skill sets you possess will be very beneficial for what I have planned. I’ve seen video footage of you caught up in some She Ra business.”

“Oh, I—” Prime stopped her with a dismissive hand.

“No need to explain anything. Being that close to a so-called superhero is a rare experience.” He rushed out his statement as if he didn’t particularly care how Catra had gotten into those possibly life threatening situations, which he really had no reason to. His tone, however, did imply that he was interested in the encounters themselves. “In fact, that kind of experience makes you essential to my project.”

“Really?” Catra asked, even more puzzled than before. Prime gently tapped a slender finger against the paper on the desk in front of her, and she finally let herself look down at it. She didn’t know what she expected to be on the paper, but what she saw was definitely not it. On the sheet laid before her were plans for a way too familiar piece of machinery. Suddenly the mention of her experience with She Ra made a lot more sense with a sketched out version of a bot, the same kind that had tried to kill her before, right in front of her eyes. “While I appreciate the flattery, I really don’t think I’m ready for something like that?”

“You underestimate yourself. Besides, you’ve yet to see what the job curtails.” Catra continued to stare at the paper in front of her, mainly so she wouldn’t have to look Prime in his menacing eyes with that look not unlike a spider eyeing a fly. “Aren’t you tired of your current working conditions? I noticed that they aren’t exactly ideal.”

“You’re not wrong,” Catra admitted. Office work wasn’t exactly her scene, especially in an office with such hostile and passive aggressive co-workers. There had actually been a fight between two people the other day right when Catra was coming back in from her lunch break. She felt really bad for whoever worked in HR. “Can I have a couple of days to think? Talk it over in my head?”

“Usually the answer would be yes, but not in this case. For something this important, I need your immediate commitment.” That was definitely shady. Catra was already getting a bed feeling in her gut. Some rich guy who had been stalking her and making machinery that hurt people and destroyed communities was offering her a chance to work with him. As big of an opportunity as that might seem at first, it was way too creepy for Catra to be comfortable with. “Did I mention that there will be a significant pay raise? It will surely be enough to help you and your roommate move out of that dangerous neighborhood.”

“How did you—” Catra stopped herself before she could finish her question. She probably didn’t want to know the answer. “Nevermind. I don’t think I can do it. Nothing personal. I’m just not quite ready.” It wasn’t that Catra didn’t want a higher salary or better working conditions. She would love to get a better job, but there was something that told her not to do it. There was something about Prime that told her not to trust him. She wanted the job, but she didn’t want to be around Prime any more than she had to. He gave Catra some shady vibes that she did not like one bit, especially after everything he’d said and done in this conversation.

“Let me rephrase for you,” Prime said with a sinister chuckle. “I am giving you an opportunity, one that I wouldn’t even speak of with most people. You’ve breached my security now, so you have two options. Either you come work for me on my project, or you don’t work for me at all.” Prime lowered his voice, delivering his message with certainty.

“Uh—”

“And if you choose not to work for me, well, I don’t think some of my friends in high places would take that very lightly.” He dropped his smile and stared at Catra expectantly. “Do you?” It was now when Catra really came to terms with the fact that she didn’t have a choice. She didn’t know who Prime’s ‘friends’ were, but she wasn’t sure she really wanted to from the way that he spoke. The spider had her trapped in his web, and she had no choice but to accept her sickly silky imprisonment.

“Then—Uh, then I guess I’m in,” She answered meekly. As if she ever had the choice. Prime’s sinister smile returned.

“Marvelous!” he bellowed, his voice bouncing off the walls and enhanced by Catra’s rising tension. “I’ll allow you to take tomorrow off as a reward for making the right choice.”

“Great. Uh, thanks.” Catra didn’t care about the day off right now. All she was concerned with right now was getting away from Prime as soon as she could. That being said, she all but ran towards the door.

“And Catra?” Prime halted her escape. Catra froze in place, but did not turn around. “Don’t tell anyone anything we’ve discussed about my little project.” Catra really did not want to make that promise, but she didn’t really have a choice, did she? So, she quickly nodded her head and left his office in haste.

-

Adora didn’t know how much time she had spent pacing around her bedroom, trying to talk herself down. She was hyperventilating and every part of her mind was screaming at her. She didn’t even know what caused her to get all shaky this time. It just kind of happened. One minute she was just doing some laundry, casually doing things around her house while listening to some music, and the next she felt like she couldn’t breathe. It was like she wasn’t in control of her own body anymore, as if she were experiencing everything trapped inside the confines of her own head. The world was a blur around her and there was a twisting feeling in her stomach.

“It’s okay, Adora. You’re okay. You’re fine,” She told herself, brushing a hand through her loose ponytail as she tried to take deep breaths. It didn’t help any. “Except I’m not. I’m failing. I’m a failure.” Hot tears burned Adora’s eyes and cheeks. Everything was caving in on her. It was all too much and she felt weak. She hated feeling weak. Being weak means that she failed to be strong. She failed….

Adora’s ringtone blasted throughout the room, tearing Adora out of her spiral. She took a couple of deep breaths to keep her voice steady, or at least as steady as she could manage, and blinked her tears away. Once collected as possible, she answered the phone.

“Hey, Glimmer. What’s up?” Adora said into the phone.

“Oh, nothing. I just wanted to see how my best friend was doing,” Glimmer said cheerily into her ear.

“What did you do?” Adora asked, assuming Glimmer's extremely upbeat tone in a sudden call meant that she had done something.

“What? Nothing!” her friend squealed. “Can’t I just want to talk to you?”

“If you say so.” Adora mumbled back.

“That is, unless something’s wrong with you.” Adora had to swallow a lump in her throat when Glimmer suggested the idea.

“Nope. I’m alright,” she lied, telling herself it was the best choice.

“Are you sure? You’ve seemed kind of unlike yourself today.” Adora mentally cursed herself. She was trying to be strong, if not for herself then for her friends. They were so good to her, and they didn’t deserve to see how fractured Adora really was. Adora was supposed to be strong, so she couldn’t let it show how weak she was.

“I’m just tired,” she lied again.

“You know you can come to me for anything, right?” Glimmer affirmed softly.

“Yeah. Thanks, Glimmer.” The sentiment was appreciated, but Glimmer was wrong. Adora couldn’t let her, or anyone else, know what was going on. She had to stay strong for them. Luckily, a shrill beeping from her wrist interrupted the conversation before Glimmer had the chance to press her any further. “Oh, hey! Would you look at that! Bots!”

“Adora—” Glimmer tried to interject.

“Gotta go save people and stuff. Love you! Talk to you later,” Adora had never been so quick to hang up, gladly escaping wherever Glimmer thought that conversation should have been headed towards.

-

No one really expects a knock on the door at one in the morning. Most people would be asleep at this hour. Luckily for Adora, Catra was very much awake. She had been standing in the kitchen, searching the fridge and pantry for a suitable late night snack, when there was an urgent knocking on the door. Catra expected it to be a neighbor or some weirdo trying to run from the cops again. She didn't expect to open the door to see Adora standing there with tattered clothes, deep red and purple markings, and—

"Holy shit! Is that blood?!" Catra yelped when she saw the large red stain seeping through Adora's torn top at her abdomen.

"No?" Adora replied, obviously unconvincingly as her entire lower torso was seeping with red.

"That isn't something that can be answered with another question! What the fuck did you do?!" Catra screamed, still staring at the red stain in abject horror.

"I— uh— I don't think I should say out here." Adora was looking around nervously, as if she were looking for something or someone dangerous, which wouldn’t be all that surprising considering her current state.

"Fine,” Catra grumbled. “Get your ass inside before you bleed out, you idiot." Catra was pissed, sure, but she wasn’t going to turn Adora away when she looked like that. That would just be a shitty move. And one that could make her a murder suspect if Adora did end up dying from blood loss.

"Thank you, Catra,” Adora breathed out gratefully, hobbling her way through the doorway.

"Well, I'm not going to leave you to bleed out on my doorstep." Catra looked around, just to make sure there was no weirdo who followed Adora to her apartment, then went in and closed the door, sealing Adora in with her. She turned to the girl in question with a questioning glare. "So, what the fuck did you do and why aren't you at a hospital?"

"It's— it's complicated,” Adora said, avoiding eye contact out of shame. Catra gave her a threatening look. "I promise I'll explain everything when I feel less lightheaded."

"Still doesn't answer why you came here instead of a hospital," Catra noted gruffly.

"I can't go to a hospital right now, and this was the closest place I could think of.” Adora bit her lip, knowing full well the trouble she would be in if she went to a hospital again. If she went there now, she wouldn’t be allowed to do her work. She couldn’t let that happen. Catra didn’t look amused at her very vague and very brief explanation. “Please, just trust me for now.” Catra eyed her suspiciously and contemplatively.

“Fine. Stay here while I go get the first aid kit,” Catra grumbled, walking off with crossed arms. She returned to the room with a medium sized plastic container. Without saying a word, she put a hand on Adora’s shoulder and guided her into the bathroom, sitting her down on the closed toilet. Adora was ready to take care of the clean up herself, but Catra batted her hands away when she went to reach down, saying nothing but giving her a harsh glare. Catra gently and slowly raised Adora’s shirt, careful not to let it scrape against the bloody mess on her skin. Adora hissed as the cold air hit her open wound and catra muttered an apology. “I have to take this off, okay?” Adora nodded. She bent her head down long enough for Catra to lift the torn piece of fabric over her head, then looked away, partially because she wanted plausible deniability if asked how bad it looked, and partially because she couldn’t look Catra in the eyes. Catra opened and took something out of the plastic, red container, then began cleaning the afflicted area. Adora tried not to pay too much attention to what she was doing, aside from hissing a few times to which Catra would mumble an apology.

"I'm sorry for intruding like this,” Adora muttered sheepishly once Catra had finished cleaning and started taking out bandages.

"Don't. I'm surprised you aren't dead yet." Her tone was curt, and Adora could understand why. After all, Adora had been the one to show up in the dead of night after Catra made it perfectly clear that she never wanted to see her again.

“I guess you want to know what happened,” Adora said, gripping onto the edge of the toilet seat.

"That would be nice, yeah,” Catra huffed back at her.

"I was in a fight, and things got ugly. I overestimated myself and underestimated them." It was a short, simplified answer, one that definitely didn’t answer Catra’s questions.

“Who the hell were you fighting for you to come out of it like this?” She gestured to Adora’s bloody, bruised state. Catra knew a million possible answers to that question, none of them good. Most of them were illegal, which she sured hoped weren’t true. “You're not— You aren't getting caught up with the wrong people, are you?”

"No! Nothing like that!" Adora was quick to shut that idea down.

“Then what? Because this doesn’t look good for you.” It was a sticky situation. Adora couldn’t tell her the truth, as much as she wished she could. Still, Catra expected some kind of answer. Catra deserved an answer, but Adora just couldn’t give her one, or at least one that made sense.

“I know. I know it doesn’t look good, but please be patient with me.” Adora pleaded, not really knowing what else she could do. Catra thought about it for a moment, giving Adora a once over before looking away.

“Whatever,” She gruffed stiffly as she finished patching Adora up. “You’re all good. For now at least.”

“Thank you so much, Catra.” Adora smiled gratefully at her, thankful for both the help with Adora’s current situation and for not pressing Adora too much for answers. Catra shrugged, closing the first aid kit back up and leaving the bathroom with Adora following behind her.

“I still think you could go to the hospital. That gash on your forehead looks rough.” Adora decided not to mention that the mark on her forehead was actually from her hitting her head on the edge of a table the other day while looking for something that she had dropped. She also wouldn’t tell her that the one on her forehead was nothing compared to one she had before that had left a scar on her back.

“I can’t,” Adora told her in response to her suggestion. “I have reasons, and I promise you I’ll tell them when the time is right, but now’s not the time.” Adora couldn’t risk going to the hospital and costing everyone She Ra when the Horde was at its peak. She also couldn’t risk putting her team or Catra in danger by telling the truth about her job.

“Whatever, Adora.” Catra rolled her eyes and took out her phone. Then she noticed Adora limping towards the door. “Uh, where are you going?”

“Home?” Adora responded, as if it were that simple of an answer.

“Like that?” She gestured to Adora, in her beat up state with her still torn and bloody clothes.

“That was the plan.” Adora looked back at Catra with an innocent smile, then started awkwardly shuffling back towards the door.

“Yeah, no.” Catra walked around to block Adora’s path, which wasn’t really that hard to do at the staggering speed she was going at. “I might be blistering mad at you right now, but I’m not letting you hobble home like that.”

“Catra, I’m fine. Really,” Adora tried to assure Catra, which she should have known wouldn’t work.

“I don’t care how fine you say you are. You might have brain damage for real this time.” Adora laughed, but Catra’s mouth stayed in a fine line. She wasn’t laughing. “I’m serious, Adora. You might be pushing everything down, but you could seriously fucking die doing whatever you’re doing.”

“Trust me, I know,” Adora chuckled in a sort of melancholy tone.

“Then why do you still do it?” Adora couldn’t answer that. She’d never even thought, or rather never dared, to ask herself that question. She did it because it was her duty, and that was all that mattered. Catra sighed and took a step forward, putting a hand on Adora’s shoulder. “Look, I won’t judge, but I won’t let you kill yourslef either. I’m not that mad at you.”

“I don’t want to be any more of a burden than I already am,” Adora said meekly, looking between Catra and the door behind her.

“Shut up already! You’re staying here tonight, end of conversation. I’m trying to help you, so let me help.”

“Okay,” Adora gave in. “Uh, should I just sleep on the couch, or—”

“You aren’t getting blood on my couch. We can’t wash blood stains out of that thing.” She also didn’t want Scorpia to walk into the living room and find Adora. Besides, she’d probably need to keep an eye on Adora in case the idiot tried to limp away again. “I’ll lay down some blankets for you in my room, I guess. I can lend you some clothes too, since what you’re wearing is completely ruined.”

“Thanks,” Adora mummered.

“Don’t mention it. Seriously, don’t.” Catra brought Adora up to her room, then grabbed a few things from her drawers and handed them to Adora. “Here. You can change into these so you don’t have to sleep in ruined clothes.” Adora quietly thanked her again as she took the clothes and left to change in the bathroom. When she returned, there was an assortment of blankets arranged into a makeshift bed on the floor next to Catra’s bed. Catra was lying quietly on her bed, either asleep already or painfully silent. Adora, now much more comfortable and wearing one of Catra’s old shirts and sweatpants, walked over to the pallet of blankets and slowly laid herself down. The exhaustion hit her like a truck, and for once she was able to fall asleep fairly easily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a lot more that I put in here, but it was getting really long so I ended up splitting it into two chapters. That being said, the next chapter will (hopefully) give some resolution. Also, just wanted to say that I really appreciate all of the support and love seeing everyone's comments, even if I don't always reply.


	15. Misunderstanding

Catra blinked awake, having been woken up by some kind of noise. She was tired and really grumpy at whatever woke her up. The likely culprit was the blonde girl sleeping on her floor who had shown up at her door in the dead of night. Typical Adora.

“Adora?” Catra mumbled wearily in the dark. She leaned over her bed to turn the lamp on her nightstand on. “Adora, are you— oh. Oh shit.” Now that she could actually look at the girl, she understood what was going on. Adora was still asleep, which only made her whimpering noises and violent tossing more concerning. Adora was having a nightmare. “Adora, wake up.” Catra didn’t know how bad Adora’s dream was, but she knew how bad hers used to be. She knew the feeling of literally being trapped in a nightmare. Catra got on the floor, kneeling next to Adora on the makeshift pallet of old blankets. She tried to shake Adora awake, which only made the sleep fighting worse, so she tried shaking with a little bit more force. “Come on, you idiot. Wake up!”

“No!” Adora shot up, gasping for air like she had been suffocating in her sleep. She punched the air, fighting against something in her mind.

“Adora, it’s okay,” Catra whispered and repeated, trying to bring Adora back to reality. She reached for Adora’s hands in an attempt to keep her from accidentally hurting herself, especially with the injury on her side. Somehow, she managed to get a hold of them, which seemed to ground Adora and bring her back.

“Catra?” Adora jerked her head and looked up, as if she had just snapped out of a trance. She looked terrified and silent tears were strolling down the soft, scarred, skin of her face. Her eyes reminded Catra way too much of how she would look whenever she knew one of them was in trouble. It was scary, and Catra didn’t want to see that look on Adora’s face ever again, even though she was supposed to be mad at her still.

“Yeah, I’m here.” Catra put aside any sense of convention, and pulled Adora into a comforting hug. Adora shook in her hold, crying into her nightshirt. Catra didn’t mind. Catra just let her cry as much as she needed to until she was done. After a while, Adora pulled away from Catra, still shaky. “Are you okay?” Catra asked, genuinely scared for her.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I’m fine.” Once again, Adora should have known that Catra would see right through her blatant lie. Adora clearly wasn’t fine. She sounded like she was gasping for air every time she spoke and her eyes were unfocused and blurry. If that didn’t say that she wasn’t fine, the fact that she was actually, physically shaking was a big tell.

“No you’re not. You’re having another panic attack.” Catra told her plainly. Catra knew the signs, the symptoms. She’d had them before too.

“A what?” Adora asked.

“We’ll talk about that later.” There would be time to explain to Adora, and subsequently to encourage her to seek professional help like Catra had done once before too. “Right now, I need you to calm your breathing, okay?” Adora nodded. Catra guided Adora through a couple of deep breaths, then let her do a couple more on her own.

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Adora said after her last breath, once her chest had loosened up.

“Don’t worry about it,” Catra said. “Do you wanna talk about whatever you were dreaming about?” Adora sighed deeply and squeezed her eyes shut.

“It was one I’ve had before. I’ve had this one a lot actually. I was sinking into the ground, or whatever dark abyss was under me. Mara was there too.” Adora let out a shuddering breath and subconsciously reached for Catra’s hand. Catra, deciding that she could be nice and do the work for her this once, interlaced their fingers, giving Adora enough leeway to let go or squeeze if she needed to. “I kept calling out for her to help, but she didn’t help me. She just reminded me that I didn’t save her. So, I kept falling into the ground. The whole time I’m sinking, there are these voices that tell me how much of a failure I am. How terrible I am because I couldn’t save her.” Adora finally opened her eyes, giving a little squeeze to the hand attached to her own. Silence consumed the air. Adora had nothing more to say, or at least for now, and Catra didn’t know what to say. She knew what she used to do when she was in Adora’s place, but it was a whole other game when you were on the other side of it.

“I used to have nightmares a lot too. I still get them sometimes, but not as much,” Catra confessed, hoping it would make Adora feel a little better somehow. She spent years trying to get rid of those things, so she understood how rough they could be.

“I’m sorry,” Adora said sympathetically.

“For what? You’re not running around giving people nightmares.”

“Yeah, but—” Catra gave Adora a look of questioning. “I don’t know. I guess I just wish I could do something to help.”

“You really need to stop thinking you can make everyone happy. It’s not good for you.” Adora had always been like that. She had always had this insane feeling of responsibility over every little thing that happened. No matter what happened or why, Adora always blamed herself for anything that went even slightly wrong. That damn hero complex. “So, do you not know what a panic attack is?”

“I know what they are. I just didn’t think that I would ever have one.” Of course she didn’t. It was Adora.

“How often do you have nightmares or get a panic attack like you did a second ago?” Catra asked. Somehow, Catra had a feeling that there was a much bigger and more prevalent issue going on than just this one time.

“About once or sometimes twice a day,” Adora told her. “I don’t really know.”

“A day?” Catra almost screamed. She knew something was up with Adora, but she didn’t know it was that serious. “Adora, I think you should see someone about that.”

“You sound like Angella,” Adora laughed croakily.

“I don’t know who that is, but maybe you should listen to her. Scorpia made me go to therapy when I was at my lowest. I was really against the idea at first, but it really helped me.”

“I guess I could look into it.” Adora supposed that, if it helped Catra, and if both Catra and Angella wanted her to try it, she could at least try.

“Good girl,” Catra said playfully and supportively. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m— I’m better now. Thank you.” Adora’s smile was back, along with a barely visible flush dusting her cheeks. She looked beyond tired, but she was smiling now at least.

“Your welcome.” The two of them were close, closer than they had been in a while, especially after the incident, which they still haven't addressed. They were just inches away from each other, holding onto the feeling of closeness. Then, Catra snapped out of it and spoke up. “Well, if you’re feeling good again, you might want to try and get some more sleep.” She stood up and made her way back into her bed.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Adora laid down, repositioning herself comfortably. There was the sound of blankets shifting and then the quiet of the night. “Uh, thanks again. For helping me, both right now and earlier. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Adora.”

-

When Catra woke up, only a couple of short hours after going back to sleep, Adora was still fast asleep. It was understandable, given everything that had happened since she arrived at Catra’s door at one in the morning. Catra was actually jealous that Adora could somehow sleep in despite the sunshine shining annoyingly into the room, streaking the blond’s face with bright light and shadows. As jealous and bitter as she was, she wasn’t going to be the one to wake Adora up after everything she’d been through. So, she got out of bed to get some food to start her day.

Scorpia had apparently already left for something before she had to work, which meant that Catra didn’t have to choose between hiding or explaining Adora to her eager friend. After putting a plate of frozen waffles in the microwave, Catra turned on the news out of habit. The first thing that came up was another story on She Ra, alleged defender of Etheria. Of course. The shiny woman’s face came across the screen, reminding Catra of her fruitless search. Why couldn’t Entrapta have just told her so she could be over this? But, Catra wasn’t over it right now. Actually, she was only becoming more invested as the image became more enlarged, zooming in on She Ra’s face.

Then, suddenly, a revelation hit Catra like a ton of bricks.

Whoever She Ra was, she would have blonde hair and blue eyes, very much like someone else she knew. She Ra would also have some kind of proof from her constant physical trauma that came from fighting all of the time, much like an idiot who would try to walk home after almost bleeding out. Catra would have to have known She Ra at some point, like maybe a childhood friend that she had recently reconnected with. She Ra’s costume was gold and white, like the pile of ruined clothes that were likely still sitting on Catra’s bedroom floor probably had been before they were stained a crimson red. Not to mention the fact that She Ra’s other little sidekicks reminded Catra a lot of people that she had met that one time at Adora’s little thing with her friends. It was all coming together now. The code was cracked. Catra even opened her laptop to watch more of the video that she had given up before. After she finished rewatching the video, actually watching it all the way through this time, the video confirmed her suspicions. She finally figured it out, and she couldn’t understand how she hadn’t seen it sooner. She Ra was—

“Good morning.” Catra held herself back from audibly gasping when Adora came into the room. She rushed to close the laptop before Adora could hear or see what she was watching.

“Morning,” Catra said as cooly and calmly as she possibly could while lowkey freaking out. Okay. So, she found her She Ra. Now what? Catra watched the blonde carefully take a seat in one of the kitchen chairs, eyeing the way she bit her lip as she released her weight into the chair. How had this idiot managed to keep a secret like that for this long?

“I’m sorry I probably messed up your sleep schedule,” Adora apologized.

“You don’t—” Catra took a calming breath and gathered her thoughts. She’d have to finish processing later. “You don’t have to apologize. I have the day off to catch up anyways.” And thank goodness she did. Between the lack of sleep and the shell shocking revelation she just had, there would have been no way she could focus on anything else today.

“Oh. Well, that’s good.” It got quiet for a moment as Catra started making a pot of coffee, which she would definitely need to deal with...everything, really.

“Apparently She Ra got into some trouble last night.” Catra pointed out, motioning to the news on the TV. “Hope she didn’t get hurt or anything.”

“She’s a superhero. I’m sure she'd be perfectly fine,” Adora responded, her voice a little bit pitchy and her eyes looking anywhere but at Catra.

“You know, you look a lot like her, with the hair and the eyes and stuff.” Catra squinted at her, waiting for some kind of reasonable response.

“Oh, yeah. I totally get that all of the time,” Adora laughed it off, although not very well. “It’s like a whole unrelated twins thing, you know. Emphasis on the unrelated.” That would have been a somewhat passable lie, if it weren’t for that fact that Adora didn’t even sound like she believed herself. It sounded more like she was offering up a suggestion rather than explaining a coincidence. Once again, Catra wondered how she had made it this far without the entire world knowing about her little secret.

“That’s kind of cool I guess.” Seriously, how had she gotten away with it for this long? The girl was a terrible liar. But, as Catra decided, she wouldn’t push for the truth. Yet. Now that she knew, she wanted Adora to actually tell her. It felt wrong to just blurt it out, breaching any kind of trust that might have been left there. Although it would make for a great revenge strike, that wasn’t who Catra was anymore, or at least she was trying not to be like that anymore. Besides, knowing that she knew could possibly get either of them into some trouble, so it was probably better this way. And, who know? Maybe she could have some fun with this.

“Hey. So, uh, I’ve wanted to talk to you for a while,” Adora said, standing up and slowly stepping closer to Catra. “About what happened with—” Catra turned sharply, ready to cut her off.

“If you want to make some lame excuse for standing me up and making me look like a fool, I don’t want to hear it.” Suddenly, Catra was back to being angry at Adora. Now that she wasn’t in danger of dying, or at least not right now, Catra wasn’t going to tolerate shit.

“Standing you up?” Adora recoiled and her brows furrowed in confusion. “Catra, I never stood you up.”

“Oh, really!” Catra laughed bitterly. “I waited outside in the cold for hours! I said pick me up at eight—”

“When did you say that?” Adora asked cluelessly.

“Right after you asked me out to seafood even though I’m allergic, you fucking dumbass!” Catra was waiting for Adora to throw back some stupid, defensive excuse for not showing up, but she didn’t. She just looked perplexed.

“The only text I got back after that said ‘I don’t think so’,” Adora said, sounding even more confused. Catra, on the other hand, wasn’t buying it for a second.

“Don’t fuck with me right now, Adora,” She warned, glaring daggers at Adora.

“I’m serious, Catra! I thought you were saying no!” Adora pleaded.

“You want to prove it?” Catra shouted in her face. Adora let out a resigned sign.

“I would, but I don’t have my phone with me right now.”

“Typical Adora,” Catra scoffed.

“I thought you were rejecting me! And then when I woke up the next morning and you blocked me—” Adora shook her head remorsefully. “When I saw that you blocked me after that, I thought I had pushed too hard and made you uncomfortable.” Catra was barely even trying to pay attention to whatever bullshit Adora was saying. By now, she had pulled out her phone, ready to show Adora just how wrong she was.

“This— Oh my gosh.” Catra did find evidence that someone was wrong, but it wasn’t Adora. “You’re totally telling the truth, aren’t you.”

“Well, yeah. But, how can you tell?”

“Trust me, I can tell when you’re lying.” Which was usually true, but there was a little bit more that definitely convinced her. “Plus, I just proved your innocence while trying to prove myself right.” Staring back at Catra were her own words, quite literally. Next to the last two texts that Catra had sent were tiny little signs telling her that there had been some kind of error. She swore that those hadn’t been there before, when she’d been obsessively checking the messages over and over while waiting for Adora to show up that night, but the bright red was right in font of her face now, totally unmissable. How blind or dense had she been to not notice that? Adora never got those texts. She was telling the truth.

“Really?” Adora asked, light returning to her voice. Catra nodded.

“And there’s my proof.” Catra showed Adora the screen. “Fuck, I’m such an idiot. I went back, like, a hundred times! How did I not see that it didn’t go through?” Now Catra really felt foolish, and it was her own fault.

“Don’t worry about it too much. I’m just glad you’ll talk to me again.” Adora froze after she said that, then met Catra's eyes for confirmation. “We are back to talking again, right? Please tell me I’m right.”

“Yes, we are back to talking,” Catra agreed with a little laugh in her voice. “I’m sorry, Adora. I blew up and acted like such a bitch for such a stupid reason.” Adora shrugged.

“Hey, it’ll be a fun party story, right?” A very Adora thing to say. Catra could probably try to kill her multiple times and she’d still be just as forgiving.

“You’re such a dork,” Catra laughed with a smile. Adora was smiling back at her. She should’ve been at least a little bit upset with Catra, but if she was she wasn’t showing it at all. Catra was grateful for the forgiveness, but she didn’t feel deserving. Then again, Adora was never one to buy into the idea of ‘deserving’. “So, what do you think about trying that whole thing again?” Catra suggested.

“What thing— Oh!” Adora’s eyes snapped open and her cheeks flushed “Yeah. Yeah, we can definitely do that. Please.”

“Adora, I like you. I’ve liked you since I was, like, twelve,” Catra confessed. After years of hiding her feeling for Adora, it felt so good to finally be telling her. And, this time, nothing would be lost in translation.

“Seriously?” Adora asked, wide eyed, grinning, and blushing.

“Yes! It’s killed me for years!”

“I like you too,” Adora said breathlessly. “Do you want to maybe go out to dinner or something sometime?”

“Of course. I would love to, but let’s find somewhere to go that won’t cause me to suffocate,” Catra said jokingly.

“Great. That’s— Yeah.” They leaned in closer to each other, inches apart and smiling. Then, unlucky for them, an abrupt beep interrupted them, causing them to shoot away from each other. “Oh, shoot! I have to go to work. There’s an emergency. I am so sorry.” Catra huffed, grumpy at the interruption.

“Yeah, yeah. You can keep the clothes you’ve got on,” Catra waved her off. Adora gave her another apologetic look, then started off for the door. “And don’t push yourself when you’re still healing!”

“Thank you and no promises.” Adora said as she opened the door.

“You better not show up at one in the morning bleeding again!” Catra shouted.

“Like I said, no promises!” Adora shouted back, then closed the door.

“That idiot,” Catra grumbled to herself as she poured herself a cup of coffee. She still couldn’t stop smiling. She was her idiot.

-

Adora was perplexed to say the least. According to the alert, the fight was supposed to be right here, but there was nothing going on as far as she could tell. Of course, Adora was a little bit late to the scene since she had to rush home and grab her spare She Ra outfit, but everything wouldn’t have been cleaned up this quick.

“Adora!” Glimmer and Bow shouted together, practically tackling her from behind. Adora bit down on her lip as hard as she could to keep from shrieking in pain when the pressed hard against her wound.

“Hey, guys. Where’s the fight? There’s nothing here,” Adora managed to say through the tight hug the two were crushing her lungs with.

“There is no fight,” Bow informed her. “We’ve been trying to call you all day, but we keep getting your voicemail.”

“Bow thought you were dead,” Glimmer added.

“Oh, right,” Adora mumbled. She hadn’t thought about that when she’d first left her house, or when she was struggling to hold her own against a tirade of bots, or when she knocked on Catra’s door early in the morning. “Sorry about that. I forgot to plug in my phone. It’s been dead so it’s sitting at home on charge.” Honestly, Adora hoped that was true, but she didn’t actually know. She might have put her phone on charge, but she ran out pretty quickly, so there was a good chance that her phone was somewhere she’d have to spend some time figuring out.

“Did something happen?” Bow asked. “You have never willingly let your phone get below twenty percent. It’s kind of hard to believe you let your phone die.”

“What can I say? I guess I just didn’t realize it this time.” Adora hoped they would believe her, but something in her body language must have given it away. All it took was one look up and down from Glimmer before the spunky, pink haired girl shook her head.

“Yeah, I don’t believe that for one second,” she said, glaring at Adora. Bow gave Adora a worried look, joining Glimmer.

“Okay, fine,” Adora caved. With both of them looking at her like that, she’d have to say something eventually. “The truth is that I actually was over at Catra’s.”

“Are you serious?” Glimmer squealed. “Isn’t she mad at you for some reason?”

“Yeah. Well, she was, but we worked it out,” Adora explained.

“So her text—” Bow started.

“There was more to it that didn’t send,” Adora told them. “Catra is allergic to seafood, so she wanted to go somewhere else. Big misunderstanding, but we figured it out.”

“So, that means what for the two of you?” Glimmer asked.

“It means we’re back on talking terms again!” Adora said giddily. She was still a little high on serotonin from their last interaction.

“What about your crush on her? How did that go?” Both of them stared at her expectantly.

“Well…” Adora trailed off, red spots forming on her cheeks.

“Well what?”

“We haven’t, like, made it official or anything, but she said that she’s liked me too for a really long time.” Glimmer and Bow’s jaws dropped in disbelief. Adora still couldn’t believe it herself.

“Really? I’m so happy for you!” Bow said excitedly, squeezing Adora with another hug.

“Don’t jinx it!” Adora exclaimed. “We haven’t talked about actually being together yet.”

“I’m sure it won’t be long. Soon enough we’ll be singing—”

“Glimmer, don’t start—”

“Catra and Adora sitting in a tree—”

“What? Are we in fifth grade or something?”

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

“You’re going to jinx it!” Adora whined. “Bow! Help!”

“Glimmer,” Bow scolded, but he was smiling along with the both of them.

“Fine, fine,” Glimmer resigned.

“Did you hit your head on your coffee table again? It looks like you have another mark,” Bow observed, pointing at a place on her cheek. Oops. She must have forgotten about that little scratch.

“You could say that,” was all Adora said. And that was all she would say about it. The only person who ever needed to know what happened last night was Catra, and even she didn’t know exactly what happened, just the end result. Adora still had her job and now she had Catra. What could go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, there you have it. I actually considered changing the whole story based on guesses of what happened and what would happen in the comments, but I knew I didn't have time to rewrite it like I wanted to. I did get ideas from those comments though. The whole text situation between Catra and Adora might seem kinda lame, but I wrote it inspired by something that has actually happened with me and one of my friends (the difference is they were the one to get mad and I was the one to cry). Although, now that I'm thinking about it, I think we both just had absolutely horrid communication skills...
> 
> Still, even if it wasn't quite the reveal or solution that you expected I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!


	16. Stuck Impossibly

“I’m so glad that you decided to join me,” Prime said, leading Catra through another set of guarded doors. She’d met him at his office about ten minutes ago, and they’ve been going through many security checkpoints since then. At this point, Catra didn’t even know what area of the building she was in.

“Well, I don’t really think I had a choice,” Catra said with the slightest bit of bitterness in her voice.

“Of course you did!. You know what your choices were, and you made the right one.” Right. She had the choice of turning him and his job offer down, but then she would have to face whatever prime’s lovely little threat meant, which she already suspected was not going to be pretty. So, her choice was either do what he says or possibly get murdered by a rich guy. How very versatile her options were.

“Woah,” Catra gasped as they finally walked through the last security obstacle. It was a large area, much larger than anywhere in the rest of the building and larger than Catra would have ever expected. It was also very nicely decorated with expensive art and furniture. The whole place looked like a building of its own, like some kind of VIP lounge. Doors were spread out across the spacious room with people coming in and out, from one to the other.

“Thank you. I made sure to give the fine people helping me with my project anything that they could ever need or want in a workplace,” Prime said cockily. That much was made clear from the extravagant, and somewhat excessive, light hanging from the ceiling. Prime started walking again, and gestured for Catra to follow, which she did.

“So what exactly am I supposed to be doing?” Catra asked. Because of the super secrecy and vague answers of Prime surrounding whatever this was, Catra had no idea what she was walking into, or rather being dragged into.

“Oh, you know. Different things depending on what is needed. Mostly you’ll be valued for your up close experience with She Ra. That essential information could be extremely helpful for the project,” Prime explained to her, not really answering much, but vagueness seemed to be a pattern with him.

“I still don’t get what your ‘project’ is supposed to be. Like, I know you’re apparently making those stupid bots that have been terrorizing the city, but why?” Catra asked, trying to get as much information as she could about whatever she was about to get herself into.

“You see, there is one industry that always evolves faster and stronger than any other: war.” As if this couldn’t get anymore shady. “The reason this company has so much money is because of my investment in this industry.”

“And what investment would that be?” Catra approached the question tentatively.

“The bots of course! I have groups of brilliant innovators coming together to create new visions of what our technology could be. They develop the tech and weapons, then we sell it off to war ready militaries all over the globe.” Prime stated proudly.

“Then why do you let them out to destroy the city?”

“All great inventions need test runs,” He exclaimed with a sickeningly proud grin. “Etheria is like the Horde’s testing ground.”

“But people live here! What about the people who’ve gotten hurt by the bots?” Catra never paid nearly as much attention to the ordeal of the bots until that first encounter with She Ra, but she was always aware of the constant news stories of a new building being demolished, or a new person who was seriously hurt. Of course, most of the focus usually went to the actual fight and the heroes, but that never changed how much destruction followed afterwards. Catra once had a neighbor who ended up losing everything because a bot destroyed their home and they couldn’t afford to fix it.

“Think of them as lab rats for war weapons. After all, I always make sure they’re in neighborhoods that no one really cares too much for. Anything that happens in those places is like sad entertainment for everyone else.” The explanation Prime had given was absolutely disgusting. Catra felt like both running away and throwing up right there. In fact, she probably would have if she weren’t frozen in place in fear and shock.

“Mr. Prime, sir!” Someone shouted out towards them, quickly walking over to them. “You arrived just in time to see the updated model being tested.”

“Wonderful!” He exclaimed, as if he wasn’t just casually talking about committing felonies and ruining innocent people’s lives. “This is Catra. She’s our newest sister in innovation.”

“Hi,” Catra managed to say, still trying to process everything and possibly make a plan to get out as quickly as possible.

“After you,” Prime said, sweeping his hand in front of him and holding the door open for Catra. Cautiously and tentatively, Adora followed the gesture and walked in. There were other important looking people there all looking at two tall mechanical bots with human-like builds. These ones weren’t like the ones Catra had seen on the news and in person before. These bots were sleeker and stood up on two limb-like pieces of steel. They had oddly shaped appendages attached, one being similar to a cylinder and the other thin and sharp, and a camera in the place of where a head would be on a person.

“This is our new design, meant to be less bulky and more efficient,” one of the important looking people explained, then pressed something on a tablet. The bot with the thinner arms suddenly whirred to life, stepping forward towards a test dummy. With one swipe, the bot cut straight through the dummy, severing it in half.

“Uh, that thing looks pretty dangerous,” Catra said, differing from the other people in the room cheering and celebrating the destroyed mannequin.

“Exactly!” Prime marveled, fascination in his eyes and smile. More things were punched in on the tablet and the other bot started up. As it aimed its arm at another, still intact dummy in front of it, light started to come from the end of the arm, then a ball of bright energy was shot forward from the bot. Catra winced when the blast caused a loud sound. When she looked again, the dummy had been completely obliterated. Upon the sight of the singed remains of the dummy, the rest of the room cheered. Catra couldn’t share the same sentiment.

“Okay, we’ve exceeded dangerous territory. These things could kill,” Catra siad, staring with disbelief at the test display.

“That’s the plan,” Prime noted with certainty that made her hair stand on edge.

“Uh, can I talk to you for a moment?” Catra asked him, trying not to look at the destructive machine or any of the people surrounding it.

“Of course, Catra.” The two of them stepped out of the room and into the hallway for some privacy. Catra just hoped it wasn’t too much privacy. She’d at least like someone to know if he killed her on the spot. “What was it you wanted to talk about?”

“I don’t feel comfortable with this anymore,” Catra said blatantly. Prime furrowed his brows.

“I’m sorry. Perhaps you should take a short break in the lounge area,” He told her, motioning towards another set of doors across the hallway.

“No. I mean I don’t feel comfortable working here anymore.” Prime’s look hardened, his lips turning into a stern line. “I’m out,” Catra reiterated her point.

“Explain,” He commanded in just as firm of a tone as his expression portrayed.

“I don’t want to have a hand in sketchy business that could get people killed. I don’t want to be even partially responsible for someone’s death.” She already didn’t want a hand in this, but the fact that he was planning on killing people and was happy about it was way too far. She wanted out now. She was done with this shit.

“I suppose I didn’t make myself clear enough in my office the other day.” Prime took a step closer to Catra, making his way too close for Catra’s comfort level. His tall, broad figure loomed intimidatingly over catra, casting a shadow over her. “Everyone has their place here. If someone were to choose to reject my generous offer of working towards a new age of innovation, let’s just say they would find that their talents would be wasted. I would hate for you to be wasted. I would hate it even more if I had to be the one to cause you to be wasted.”

“I’ve never taken well to threats, old man,” Catra said, trying to maintain a firm tone of her own, hoping it would work.

“Put up that tough act all you want. I see right through it.” He glared down at her, right through her. Catra wanted to run. Actually, she really wanted to clock him right now, but she maintained enough willpower to not throw hands right then and there. Neither of those options would help her at all in this situation. Prime, seeing Catra’s lack of options let that sinister, proud smile return. “Now, would you like to come back with me and discuss the next steps for our little invention, or do I need to make a couple of calls to make sure that you… might not get home as soon as you might think.”

“Fine,” Catra agreed, though not of her own will or conscience.

-

Everything hurt. Adora was sickeningly nauseous, but she wouldn’t let it show. She was already finished taking on all of the bots. All she had to do was get out of here and safely get to somewhere where she could pass out or something. The bandaged wound residing on her abdomen was killing her. It was like she was getting the wound all over again, with an excruciatingly sharp pain pulsing throughout her whole torso from that one spot. She would be fine though. That is if her friends, who were marching over to her, would let her off the hook for a risky move that she had pulled which earned her a few new injuries across her chest and shoulders. Adora wasn’t very hopeful that she could get away with that, but she was optimistic.

“Adora, what the fuck were you thinking?” Glimmer shouted, yanking Adora up from the ground harder than she probably needed to.

“That I could get rid of the bots?” Adora offered up.

“Oh, was that before or after dying?” Glimmer torted back, pulling at her hair, which Adora thought was a bit dramatic.

“I’m fine, guys. As always, I—”

“Are you bleeding?” Bow asked. Adora looked down to check where he was pointing. She had apparently bled through her bandage, which would explain why she was so lightheaded and nauseous.

“No?” She tried to say, but, once again, the questioning tone in her voice gave her away.

“Adora!” Glimmer fussed. “When did you start bleeding?” Adora thought about it for a minute. Honestly, she had no idea when she could have started bleeding. The adrenaline of the fight kept her distracted for most of it, so there was no telling when it started getting bad.

“Come on. We need to get you to a hospital. Again,” Bow sighed, already punching in numbers on his wristlet for emergency services.

“It’s fine! That one is already taken care of!” Adora tried to pass off, hoping to avoid any fuss. She realized too late that she probably said the wrong thing to not draw attention.

“What do you mean?” Bow asked, giving her a questions look. Yup. She probably should have said something different just then.

“Uh, nothing!” Adora tried to cover it up, but the vague implication was already out there and wedged into her friends’ minds.

“Adora, what are you hiding?” Glimmer asked her with a hard glare. Adora was about to speak, about to tell her that it was nothing, but Glimmer was one step ahead of her. “And don’t say it’s nothing!” Adora didn’t know what else she could say, so she didn’t say anything. Any possible answer she could give wouldn’t be something that they hadn’t already figured out and she’d probably end up accidentally letting something else slip.

“We don’t have the time for this. We have to get Adora to the hospital,” Bow huffed, showing an usual annoyance and frustration.

“No you don’t! I just need to go home and replace the bandage or something! I’ll be fine!” She blurted out before she had the time to think about what she was saying, only realizing and recognizing her mistake.

“You mean you were already hurt when you got here!” Bow was the one shouting now.

“Whoops,” Adora whispered to herself, looking between her two friends, who both now looked very upset with her.

“Whoops is right!” Glimmer snapped. “Now you definitely need to go to the hospital, and I’m calling Mom when we get there! Nothing is going to get you out of it.” She was right. At this point, there was no use in Adora trying to escape it. An ambulance was probably already on its way. Adora just looked down at the ground in defeat, not wanting to feel the shame of looking either of her friends in their faces.

“Okay,” She sighed with resignation. All she could do now was regret letting anything slip out in the first place. If she had only been stronger—

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Glimmer asked, more softly than she had sounded a second ago.

“It was nothing, and there was no reason to worry you guys. I took care of it myself,” Adora explained weakly, still avoiding their gazes. “Besides, I couldn't risk costing the team She Ra.”

“And we can’t risk losing Adora,” Bow countered with a soft, concerned look. “You have to take care of yourself too.” Adora laughed lowly. She knew she had a slight problem with that. It was something they’d been telling her as long as they’ve known her. Still, it was a struggle to actually do anything to fix it. She just always wanted to make everyone happy. She nodded with uncertainty, not really knowing much else she could do to respond.

-

Catra had concluded that she was trapped. She was stuck in an impossible situation, and there was nothing that she could do about it. She really, really didn’t want to work for, much less with, that asshole Prime, especially after today. She could barely stand having to be in the same room with him all day at work for just one day. He was a rich creep that was literally killing people and didn’t care. Catra wanted nothing to do with him. Still, she heard him loud and clear. She couldn’t leave so easily, and she’d likely be met with some unfortunate tragedy if she tried to. On the other hand, Prime was hurting people, innocent people, for his own gain. Prime was hurting Adora. It sucked. It really, really sucked. And it was driving Catra absolutely insane.

“Agh! Why me, of all people?!” Catra frustratedly shouted out loud to no one in particular. She grabbed at her legs, gripping onto a bunched up handful of her pants, and took a deep, grounding breath. She felt herself starting to get worked up. She couldn’t really blame herself for it; anyone would be beyond stressed in her situation. It was just so much to process, so much to think about. Still, she didn’t want it to get too bad. Luckily, her phone started ringing just then with a familiar name lighting up on the screen. Good. Something to keep her distracted and calm her nerves a little bit.

“Hey, Catra!” A cheery voice picked up on the other line when Catra hit the accept call button.

“Hey,” Catra answered back, definitely not matching Adora’s energy.

“Are you okay?” Adora asked as soon as she heard it.

“Not really, but I don’t want to talk about it,” Catra told her truthfully.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. It’s just work stuff. I’d rather not bring it home.” Catra needed to distract herself from everything right now. Talking about it was the last thing she needed. “Can you just talk? Tell me about your day or something.” There was silence on the other end for a second, but Catra could hear Adora nodding, not realising that Catra couldn’t tell she was nodding.

“Well, my boss grounded me,” She finally said after a second.

“Your boss grounded you?” Catra snickered.

“Yeah. I—” There was a pause, a hesitation as Adora seemed to reconsider her words and swallow her pride. “I got in a little bit of trouble today.”

“You? Trouble?” Catra almost laughed. Adora wasn’t the troubling type. In fact, that was her issue. She was too much of a goody two shoes, everyone’s golden girl. However, Catra had a feeling that it had something to do with Adora showing up the other night.

“Yeah,” Adora huffed out. “She said I was overworking myself and needed to take a break.”

“I believe it,” Catra said. She heard Adora scoff through the phone. “I mean, come on, Adora. As long as I’ve known you, you’ve always had an issue with overworking yourself.”

“No, I haven’t!” Adora argued back defensively. Now Catra was the one to scoff.

“Really? Do you remember when we were ten and you walked around with a broken arm for a whole week because you wanted to be able to play your stupid game.” Adora went silent at that. They both remembered Adora accidentally falling off of the roof when they were kids and the scolding they got from Weaver. Catra was concerned, but Adora assured both her and Weaver that she was perfectly fine. However, she then spent the next week wincing whenever she had to use her left arm, which she avoided as much as she could. After she ended up actually screaming in pain when someone yanked on her arm, she was finally taken to the doctor where they found out that she’d had a broken arm ever since that fall.

“It was not a stupid game! It was the most important game of the season!” She retorted, like that made it any better. Besides, Adora used to say that about every game in any sport she did. “And, in my defense, I didn’t know it was broken! It didn’t even hurt that bad!”

“Whatever you say, Adora,” Catra said, rolling her eyes. “So, since you’re on work probation or whatever, does that mean that you’re always free now?”

“Yep,” Adora sighed. “I have literally nothing to do now.” Interesting.

“So, if I wanted to come over later this week, there wouldn’t be anything wrong with me showing up?” Catra asked suggestively. She heard Adora choke.

“Uh, no. No, not at all. That would be great,” Adora chuckled awkwardly.

“Good.” Just then, Catra heard the front food open and some shuffling in the kitchen along with a voice she recognized to be her happy-go-lucky roommate. “Sounds like Scorpia just got home with food. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay. Well, I guess I’ll talk to you later, Catra!” Adora said, sounding somewhat disappointed but still cheery as ever.

“Oh, and, Adora?” Catra added on before she hung up.

“Yeah, Catra?”

“Thanks for calling, and thanks for just talking to me,” She said softly, a vocal display of vulnerability, usually reserved only for Adora.

“Of course, Catra. Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update and sorry if this chapter isn't that great or exiting. I may have written most of this chapter at 4 AM.
> 
> I'm going to try to post next week but I might not. I started school this week, and home stuff isn't the best rn, and my sleep schedule is wack. It's got me feeling unmotivated and overstimulated a lot more often. I really hope things calm down so I can keep writing because it's literally my only coping mechanism and I love it, but I don't want to put out chapters that aren't as good as I'd like them to be. I think you guys reading and this story and myself all deserve better than crappy, uninspired chapters.
> 
> I'm also really sorry that I haven't responded to any comments or anything. I appreciate them so so much, but I can't bring myself to respond to them at the moment.
> 
> Still, I hope you're still enjoying the story! I swear I have a plot fleshed out for this, I'm just trying to figure out how to get there. Have a good day and a good week and a good everything!


	17. Take a Step

Adora recognized the halls surrounding her. They were the halls of her childhood home before she was adopted. She recognized the faint smell of alcohol coming from Mrs. Weaver’s bedroom. She recognized the familiar path that she was following, her small, bare feet running across the hardwood floor.

“Catra!” her childish voice shouted out to the nothingness in front of her. Then, she was there and the space in front of Adora turned dark and empty. A younger Catra stood out beyond where the hallway stopped and the void started, just out of Adora’s reach. She had red, tear stained cheeks and puffy, widened eyes. She wasn’t moving, only staring straight at Adora as she so desperately tried to run to her. Yet, Adora could never make it to her. It was liked the hallway was endless and Catra just kept getting further and further out of reach. Adora tried to run faster, to push harder so that she could reach Catra, but it didn’t work. Catra still stayed far ahead of Adora in the endless maze. For every step Adora took, Catra just seemed that much further away. Until everything stopped. Adora had stopped running. She couldn’t move. Catra, on the other hand, had started to slowly walk towards her.

“Why did you leave me, Adora?” the young Catra asked in a way that made Adora’s heart break and her stomach twist in knots.

“I didn’t— I had to—” Adora wanted to explain why, but she couldn’t find her voice. Every time that she would try to speak, the words would get caught in her throat, causing her to choke on them.

“Why couldn’t you help me?” Catra pleaded as she moved forward. The closer she got, the closer the void got. The familiar hallways slowly disappeared, inch by inch, replaced by empty space. Catra, despite having all of the same features as Adora’s childhood best friend, didn’t look the same. Her eyes were cold and dead, her hardened stare shooting straight through Adora.

“No, wait!” Adora cried as Catra came even closer and the floor beneath her disappeared, sucking her in like a black hole. “Catra, please!”

“Oh, Adora,” Catra, now an adult, drawled out in her smooth, flowing, voice. She kneeled down to look at Adora, who was still falling into the nothingness, square in the face. She gently lifted Adora’s head up with a firm finger, forcing blue eyes to meet her own “You failed me,” Catra hissed out in Adora’s face.

“No…” Adora croaked out.

“Just like you failed her. Just like you fail your friends. Just like you fail everyone.” Adora didn’t want to hear it anymore. She just couldn’t stand it. But there was no way out. She was helpless against Catra’s painful words and the guilt tearing at her insides. “Face it: You are a failure, Adora.”

Adora awoke with a sharp intake of breath, causing her to almost choke on air. She gripped the blankets in her fists, focusing on the soft feeling against her fingers and the cool air in her room hitting her heated skin instead of the ache in her chest and her sore lungs. She took deep breaths, or at least tried to, remembering Catra’s voice to help guide her through it.

“It was just a dream.” She whispered into the dark room, hugging herself and rocking back and forth. “I’m fine. It’s okay.”

-

Catra had hoped that she wouldn’t be as involved with Prime’s project as he led her to believe, mostly for the sake of her sanity and conscience. However, she learned that was not the case when she was asked to attend some sort of meeting first thing when she walked in. Luckily, she wasn’t very much needed, so she stayed zoned out for most of the time. She wasn’t complaining. It meant less involvement with this sick project and more time to think about anything else. While the other nerds in the room chatted away about plans and whatnot, Catra let her mind wander around to a certain blonde. She was glad that they were talking, and maybe even more than that soon. She didn’t want to jump in or assume anything either. The last thing she wanted to do was move too fast and scare Adora away. Still, Catra couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened the other day if they hadn’t been interrupted by that damn insistent wrist thingy beeping. She wondered if Adora’s lips would have made their way to her own. She imagined how it would feel to finally kiss Adora after years of holding it all back.

“What do you think, Catra?” Someone asked her, bringing her out of her delightful daydream. She blinked looking around to figure out what was going on. Everyone else at the table was just staring at her expectantly.

“What?” She asked, totally clueless.

“About the bot release plan for this week? Which of the two options do you think would be the most effective?” The person sitting next to her clarified, pointing down to a set of papers on the table in front of her.

“Let me take another look at them.” She said, trying to at least not make it painfully obvious that she hadn’t been paying attention to anything that was said before. Looking over the papers didn’t help much though. There were no actual visual plans that Catra understood. The wasted paper just contained a bunch of fancy words and graphs and statistics. Nerd talk. Entrapta might understand something like this, though Catra desperately hoped she’d never have to get caught up in this shit too, but Catra would have prefered an actual visual to show what’s going to happen instead of five paragraphs explaining it. “I guess plan X2 would work best,” she guessed, hoping that would suffice.

“Exactly as I thought!” A person from the other side of the table exclaimed. “That nuisance of a superfreak won’t know what to do if we strike from all sides of the city. It’s time to finally kill off our little problem.” That incited cheers and agreement from the whole room. Well, almost the whole room.

“We aren’t actually, like, planning on trying to kill her though, right?” Catra asked, suddenly more concerned. Any light laughter from before stopped abruptly and all of the attention went back to her.

“Of course we are! She Ra, and whoever is behind that ugly little mask, is a vermin, and vermin need to be exterminated to create order,” Someone said very factually.

“Shouldn’t we be focusing on developing new technology and stuff like that?”

“Well, then you wouldn’t be needed here, would you?” Prime said, drawing the attention to where he had been standing in the corner of the room. All eyes were on the powerful man as he walked away from the shadowy nook and over to the table. “She Ra has been a long time enemy of this company. Before the one you know there was another, a predecessor of sorts. She Ra is an obstacle, and interference, in being able to freely test our products.”

“But, isn’t she helping you test them? I mean, If they’re supposed to be war machines, what better way is there to test them than having someone fight them.” It seemed logical in Catra’s mind, but, based on the nasty looks she got after saying that, apparently not to everyone else.

“You might think that, but it’s not as simple as that,” Prime explained with a tone that sounded somewhat condescending. He rounded the table, demanding all of the attention as he slowly stalked around the room behind everyone’s seats. “She Ra is working for someone. We destroyed the former employee of the old She Ra, but there is someone new that knows what we do.”

“So?” Catra sneered.

“So, I would prefer to have no opposition in our way,” He stated. “One small mistake could cause everyone here a great deal of trouble, and I’m sure you don’t want that just as much as the rest of us.” His piercing eyes shot through Catra’s skull, creating an uncomfortable tension.

“Of course not,” Catra said, even though it couldn’t be farther from the truth. No one here needed to know that though. Prime nodded affirmingly.

“Then we must get rid of those who wish for us to crumble, whoever it may be.” That whoever just happened to be Adora. Oh boy.

-

Adora had tried the whole staying at home thing. Really, she did. It didn’t last long though, given that Adora had nothing to do. She quickly became restless at home without any specific tasks or purpose. So, like the genius she was, she turned to the only rational option. She showed up at work where she was explicitly banned from for the next couple of weeks. She was hoping that she could just sneak in, maybe make it to the employee gym to train for a little while without anyone noticing.

“Adora! You can’t be here!” Glimmer hissed at her the moment she stepped through the doors. Well, there goes any hope of sneaking in unnoticed.

“What? I’m not doing anything!” Adora tried to look and sound as casual as she could.

“Ugh! But you will!” Glimmer groaned, stomping towards Adora, ready to push her back out the door.

“Adora, you’re supposed to be resting at home!” Bow fussed, suddenly appearing from around the corner. Now she had two best friends that she had to try to get around.

“I can still rest!” Adora tried to argue.

“At your workplace?” Glimmer scoffed, looking Adora up and down, probably eyeing the athleticwear that Adora was wearing. “Yeah, I don’t think so.”

“Please?” Adora pleased, giving up on debating her way around this and moving on to plan b. “What would I even do at home? It’s so boring!”

“Rest!” Both Glimmer and Bow shouted frustratedly at her in unison. At this point, the two were a small but powerful united front. There was no use in trying to sweet talk them into letting her by, even just this once.

“Fine. I guess I’ll just have to go home,” Adora shrugged. She slowly started taking steps towards the door. Glimmer and Bow reluctantly turned away. Adora walked as slowly as she could, listening for the sounds of footsteps becoming distant. Once she thought that they were both a safe distance away. Adora whipped around and made a mad dash towards the gym. That plan didn’t work either, as the two had apparently predicted her move. They were standing, Bow with crossed arms and Glimmer tapping her foot, right at the beginning of the hallway that the gym was on.

“Adora, no!” Glimmer scolded, gripping her arm tightly and all but dragging her away, back to the front entrance. Adora looked longingly over her shoulder at the gym doors before Bow moved behind her, blocking her vision. Glimmer only relented in her harsh grip on Adora’s forearm once they were outside, standing in the parking lot. “Go home. Now,” She commanded.

“Okay, okay. I get the message.” There was no use fighting the two anymore, at least for now. They knew all her tricks. There was no getting around them.

“Do you?” Bow asked, raising an eyebrow at her. Adora hung her head a little. Honestly, she was still working on it. A part of her understood, but another part of her was restless and itching for something to do.

“Get back in your car and go home. We’ll watch you to make sure you do.” Adora nodded and obeyed, shuffling back to her car like a dog with their tail tucked between their legs.

-

“You know, I never expected you to be such a great cook,” Catra said with a mouthful of food. They were both sitting on the couch, eating a dinner that Adora had whipped up for the two of them when Catra had called and said she would be over after work.

“Well, I never did either,” Adora admitted pushing a pile of food onto her fork. “Razz taught me how to cook and bake. It was mostly pies though. Before that, I wouldn't go anywhere near an oven or stove.” They both chuckled lightly at that. Catra could imagine little Adora doing everything imaginable to avoid cooking. Better yet, she thought of Adora just learning how to cook. She probably got covered in ingredients before she actually mixed any together.

“Who’s Razz?” Catra asked, cocking her head in curiosity.

“Kind of a family friend, I guess. She’s a really nice old lady that Mara used to be neighbors with.” Adora smiled at the fond memories of spending summers at Razz’s. She was an eccentric old woman, but she was always fun to be around. Adora should probably go back there to see her soon, she thought. “I still visit her sometimes. Maybe you could come along one time.”

“Maybe I could,” Catra echoed. They were both quiet, enjoying each other’s presence and their own meals. After finishing her meal, Adora sat her fork and plate down.

“So, you mentioned the other day that you went to therapy?” Adora brought up. She’d wanted to ask about it since Catra had first mentioned it, but there’s not exactly an easy segway to something like that.

“Yeah, I did. Scorpia had to carry me there the first couple of times, but I went.” Catra chuckled, remembering being carried over Scorpia’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes the first time she ever went.

“Why did you go?” Catra froze for a second, but shook it off. Adora noticed her hesitation, though, and quickly retreated. “Sorry! That was way out of line, and I shouldn’t have said that. I was just thinking about it and I was curious and—”

“No. It’s okay, Adora,” Catra assured her, setting her own plate down next to Adora’s.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to push you or anything,” Adora said, reaching out to touch Catra, but retreating her hand quickly with a second thought.

“No, it’s fine. Just caught off guard. I’m good,” Catra restated, taking the hand Adora had pulled back into her own. The touch would probably be good for the both of them. She gripped her leg with her other hand, preparing herself. “I wasn’t doing so good a few years ago. I finally had a place to live and someone that cared about me, which was great, but old habits die hard.”

“I had a real issue with self-sabotage back then. I wouldn’t allow anything good for myself because I felt like I didn’t deserve it. Hell, sometimes I still feel like I don’t deserve what I have, but I try not to pay attention to those thoughts.”

“Tied in with that was a slight alcohol problem. It was never really about drinking or getting drunk. It was more about fucking myself up as much as I could. I didn’t care how, where, or when. I just wanted to get fucked up. I lived for those shitty hangovers that made me want to slam my head into a wall. I felt like I deserved it.”

“The thing I regret most was how I treated Scorpia. She is an amazing friend, and I sort of took advantage of that. I was really mean to her when she didn’t deserve it. She stepped in when I reached my worst and forced me to take a look in the mirror and get the help I needed.”

“Catra, I—” Catra put a hand up, stopping her before she could say anything more. She didn’t want to hear any pity. That really wouldn’t do her any good right now.

“Don’t say that you’re sorry. You didn’t do anything. I just want to move on from that. I want to focus on moving forward. I want to think about this, right here, right now.” Catra squeezed Adora’s hand lightly and Adora smiled at her.

“We can do that,” Adora said softly. Catra leaned over, resting her head against Adora’s shoulder. She looked up and found expansive blue eyes looking back at her. Slowly, they both shifted so that they were holding each other.

“Are you okay with this?” Catra asked cautiously. She wanted to make sure Adora was comfortable with what was happening before anything else happened.

“More than okay,” Adora replied, grinning widely. Her eyes bounced around, taking in every intricate detail, every curve and mark of Catra’s face as if she was both seeing it for the first time all over again and she was never going to see it again. “Can I kiss you?”

“Hell yes,” Catra replied enthusiastically and quickly. Adora swooped in immediately, capturing Catra’s lips in a long awaited kiss. It was everything both of them could have hoped for and much, much more. Everything, the past several weeks, their entire lives led up to this moment. When the kiss was over, they leaned in again for another one, craving each other’s lips. Eventually, though, they had to break apart. Catra was the first one to tear away, albeit begrudgingly. “As much fun as this has been, I have to get home before it gets dark.”

“Aww,” Adora pouted playfully. “Be safe, Catra.”Catra giggled as she stood up, but not without giving Adora one more quick peck, leaving a lingering trace in her absence. Adora was smiling like an idiot and blushing furiously.

“You too, idiot. Talk to you later.” Catra stopped when she had her hand on the door, turning around to say one more thing. “And I’m really glad that you’re considering therapy.” Adora’s smile grew wider and she nodded. With that, Catra left, closing the door behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! At least for now, I am. I may end up taking another break at some point, but for now we're just gonna live in the moment! Also, a little heads up that there is going to be quite a few upcoming chapters where I'm just blatantly and unapologetically projecting (mainly onto Adora) bc you just gotta project sometimes, you know? Thanks to everyone for the support! It means so much and makes me so happy and faejgfvybaj!!!!! You are all very beautiful and wonderful human beings!!


	18. Stir Crazy

“Ugh! I can’t take this anymore, Catra!” Adora complained huffily. It had not even been a full week into her exile from her job and she was already dying of boredom. She’d cleaned her entire house twice, baked until she ran out of ingredients, and finished a basic workout (although she had been told not to work out until she was healed) with what she could do at home. There was nothing left for her to do.

“You know you can still go places, right? Just not work,” Catra told her, laughing a little at Adora’s whiny dramatics. Every time the two of them had talked since Adora’s self proclaimed “imprisonment”, Adora had acted the same, pouting like a child in time out.

“Where else am I supposed to go?” Adora said, totally at a loss. Although they couldn’t see each other, Catra knew she was making that stupid face with those stupid puppy dog eyes.

“I don’t know, the park or some shit,” Catra said flippantly, huffing through her nose. “I’m sure you can figure something out.”

“What am I supposed to do, though? I need something to do.” Adora continued to complain. Of course, just going out isn’t as simple as it sounds. Adora needed a purpose, an end goal. If there was no direction for her to go in, Adora felt frozen in place. She had spent years carving an almost ritualistic lifestyle. She needed that structure in her life.

“Does your job seriously make up that much of your personality?” Honestly, it probably did. That’s what made it so hard, and that’s why she was currently in her situation. Adora’s entire life had been consumed by her job. After Adora stayed quiet, Catra figured she was right about the answer. “Well, you could always come see me,” she suggested to Adora.

“But didn’t you say you were at work?” Adora asked. “Which, by the way, why are you on the phone with me if you’re working?”

“First of all, I stepped away from all that stuffy work junk. As far as anyone but you needs to know, this is an emergency phone call,” Catra said cheekily. She might hate her boss and what she was doing and really everything about the company that she worked for, but at least her new job was really relaxed about breaks and shit like that. “Secondly, It’s almost lunchtime, and I wouldn’t mind if a beautiful blond idiot brought me some food.” Maybe it was just an excuse to see Adora, or maybe it was an excuse to get free food and get away on her lunch break. Either way it seemed like a win-win.

“Aww! You called me beautiful!” Adora cooed.

“Am I getting food or not?” Catra quickly put a stop to that, although she couldn’t help but think about how cute it was.

“Of course. What would the lady like to eat?”

“Oh my gosh, you are such a dork,” Catra laughed. “Surprise me. Just not seafood.” Adora chuckled at the bittersweet reference. Hopefully there wouldn’t be another mistake like that.

“Got it. I’m on it.” The phone beeped after that without another word.

“I didn’t even tell her what time,” Catra huffed to herself, staring at her phone. She thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “Eh, she’ll be fine.”

-

“I have food!” Adora announced proudly when Catra met her outside the building a while after their call. She was holding the passenger door open for Catra, as cliche as ever. Catra took a quick peek inside Adora’s car and noticed piles of bags and to-go boxes stacked up in the back seat.

“That’s a lot of food, Adora,” Catra remarked, raising a questioning brow at the blonde.

“I couldn’t decide on just one place, and I might have gone a little overboard,” Adora explained, sheepishly looking down at her shoes. “Is it still okay?” Catra huffed out a laugh through her nose, looking back at the assorted take-out foods. There was certainly a lot there, way more than either of them would be able to eat, even with Adora’s usual large appetite. Catra didn’t even know how Adora could have gotten all of it made and ready to go in the amount of time that she did. Adora really was always such an overachiever. However, it was food, food that smelled enticingly delicious, and Catra simply couldn’t argue with that.

“Well, I’m not going to say no to more food,” Catra concluded, hopping all the way into the passenger side of the sleek car and allowing Adora to close the door. Adora walked around the car, getting in herself. Catra buckled her seatbelt, expecting Adora to do the same, but when Catra had finished and sat back in her seat Adora was unmoved. She was just staring at her with that goofy, sweet look. Catra smirked at the almost gawking stare. “Are you going to take me somewhere to eat or are we eating in your car? Or did you just want to stare at me for my entire lunch break?” Adora blinked and straightened her posture, fumbling with the keys in the ignition.

“Um, yeah. I mean, I have somewhere in mind to eat. That is, if you would want to go there?” She said as she finally started the car and buckled her seatbelt.

“Take me away,” Catra sighed, reclining her seat to relax while Adora drove. She was glad to drive away, feeling lighter with every little inch further she got from work. If she hadn’t made herself so comfortable in her seat, she would have turned around and flipped the building off. If only she could do that to her actual job. It didn’t take too long to get there, just long enough for Catra to close her eyes and lightly doze for an undetermined amount of time. When she opened her eyes after hearing Adora’s car shut off, Catra looked around. They were parked next to a very green looking park with old benches and tables set around and flowerbeds lining narrow paths. “Well, this place looks nice,” Catra observed, stepping out of the car.

“Glad you think so. I used to come here for picnics,” Adora said as she grabbed an armful of to-go bags from the backseat.

“Why’d you stop?” Catra asked her, grabbing some bags of her own from the passenger side.

“I got a little busy.” Adora admitted sheepishly. “Work, you know.” Right. Work. Adora was a workaholic, which is why they were even eating lunch together in the first place.

“You really do revolve your entire life around work, don’t you?” Catra chuckled bittersweetly at the reminder. Adora shrugged as she began walking down a path leading to one of the tables, Catra following behind her.

“I kind of have to,” she sighed. Her voice wasn’t directed at Catra though. It sounded more like a reflection, a sad reminder to herself.

“If you have to, then why did you get in trouble for doing just that?” Catra pointed out.

“I— Well—” Adora stammered, trying to scramble up some excuse, but not succeeding. “Okay, so maybe it’s not technically a requirement, but it’s something that I need to do. It’s hard to explain.” Of course it was. Because it was Adora they were talking about here. Of course, there was a more complicated situation going on with Adora’s job, but the premise still stood that Adora gave way too much of herself to work. Catra huffed a little bit as they both set the bags down on the table and began to take some of the food out.

“Maybe, instead of moping around at home and complaining that you’re bored all of the time, you should find something else to fill your life besides work.” Adora sighed and shrugged her shoulders. Catra, who did not find that an acceptable response, crossed her arms and scoffed.

“I have you,” Adora said sweetly, leaning in for a kiss, Catra leaned in too, just close enough that their lips were about to touch, then abruptly pulled back.

“Not gonna cut it, babe. Get a hobby,” she asserted.

“Fine. I’ll try,” Adora gave in. Catra nodded, then sat down, ready to eat. Adora sat down next to her, digging through one of the bags for something to eat herself. “So, how’s work been for you today?”

“Okay, I guess,” Catra said dismissively. She didn’t want to pull Adora into that mess. At least not yet. Catra just wanted to let all of that bullshit stay at work.

“What do you do, anyways?” Adora asked her.

“Just, uh, advise,” Catra answered vaguely.

“Advise?” Adora repeated, pushing for a little bit more.

“Yup,” Catra said, slightly popping the p at the end, hoping Adora would get the message and leave it alone.

“What do you advise on?” Adora prompted Catra, much to Catra’s internal displeasure.

“Just planning stuff and all that corporate crap. Nothing big,” Catra passed off. It was a lie, of course. Catra figured she would tell Adora about what was going on with her job and Prime at some point, maybe after Adora actually told her up front about her alter ego, but she thought it would be the best for both of them if she kept as much as she could under wraps until the right time came. The more distance between Catra’s personal life and the shady creep she worked for, the better. “What happened with your job again?” Catra switched the conversation, graciously shifting the attention back to Adora.

“According to my boss and co-workers, I’m overworking myself,” Adora huffed and rolled her eyes.

“You are,” Catra affirmed. Adora looked over at her with an offended look, as if she couldn’t believe Catra could possibly think that she could be overworking herself. Catra rolled her eyes. “Adora, you showed up at my door bleeding and your biggest concern is that you aren’t allowed to go to work. I’m pretty sure that you’re, like, obsessed with your job.” Adora scoffed defensively.

“I am not.” Adora tried to act convicted about that assertion, but it fell apart with one challenging glare from Catra. “Okay, maybe I do get a little carried away with work sometimes, but that’s just because it’s extremely important that I do my job right!”

“I’m sure the world will survive long enough for you to take a little vacation,” Catra told her, sliding a hand against her back.

“But what if it doesn’t? Then, It’ll be my fault that people got hurt.” Adora rubbed at her temples and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. She opened her mouth to say something else, but it never came out and she ended up just shutting it again. She didn’t need to say anything; her thinking was loud enough on it’s own.

“Enough with the hero complex shit,” Catra hissed, though it was packed with more worry and protectiveness than it was venom. Adora’s shoulders sagged, and she glanced up quickly to look at Catra, shutting her eyes and turning her face away again just as quickly. “Adora, you can’t expect to be perfect all of the time for everyone else. Especially when you won’t look out for yourself first. You have to save yourself before you can save the world.” Adora finally took a breath and sat up straighter, nodding her head slowly.

“Yeah. You’re right. I just—”

“I know.” Catra stopped her before she even had to say anything. She knew. She knew what she was going to say. It had been the same excuses she’d been using for years. Maybe one day Adora would stop saying the same thing every single time something like this happened. Catra could only hope that she’d quit at least. “French fry?” Catra offered, switching the attention as she took one of the fries and held it out in front of Adora. Enough of the deep shit. Catra wanted to actually enjoy her lunch break with the girl she loved.

-

Despite the unexpected heavy conversation, Catra really enjoyed her lunch with Adora. It was nice to be able to get away for a few and stuff her face with whatever she felt like while they talked. It left Catra much more relaxed than she would ever be on a workday otherwise as she walked back into work. Sadly, that didn’t last for long.

“Ah, there you are, Catra. I was beginning to think you’d left us.” Prime was there to greet her the moment she came through the last set of doors.

“Uh, no? I went out for my lunch break today.” Catra sensed that prime had some kind of issue with catra leaving. Knowing what she did about him, it was probably some weird control thing.

“Was the food we provide here not to your liking?” Prime asked.

“No, the food here is perfectly fine. Someone brought me lunch and we ate together,” Catra told him, hoping that would be enough to get him off of her back.

“I see.” His brows came together in thought, the look on his face showing his disdain for the impromptu excursion, very much proving what Catra had suspected.

“Is that a problem?” Catra questioned. “When you told me I’d have a longer lunch break, I thought that meant I could go to other places since I had the time. Is that not allowed or something?” It was actually one of the only things, aside from the obvious pay increase, that Catra actually looked forward to with this job.

“No, of course it is allowed. I was only making sure that there were no issues on my end.” There were actually a million issues on his end as far as Catra was concerned, but she bit her tongue on those thoughts. She knew exactly where that would lead. “Anyways, your presence has been requested. How about I accompany you there and you can tell me about your lunch.” It wasn’t a suggestion. Prime was already guiding her to where she needed to go before he even finished his statement.

“There isn’t much to tell. Someone brought me lunch and we ate together, like I said,” Catra tried to dismiss the question, waving it off nonchalantly.

“Who is this someone?” Prime questioned. Oh no. Catra didn’t want this man to have any more ties to her personal life. He already had too much information. He especially couldn’t know about any connection between Adora and Catra. It would definitely put Adora at too much of a risk for Catra’s liking.

“Just an old friend of mine,” Catra deflected once more.

“Does this old friend have a name?” Prime pressed further.

“Well, obviously,” Catra snarked. Prime tilted his head, looking at her expectantly. “I don’t want to share their name with a stranger without knowing if they'd be okay with it or not,” Catra coughed up as an excuse, which would still be something she would have said even if it hadn’t been Adora. What’s more was that it was a clear and viable excuse. Prime didn’t seem to like having information kept private from him. He cut his eyes downward at her, a faint grimace on his face.

“You’re a clever and considerate girl, Catra,” He said, almost sneering. He punched in numbers on a keypad, then leaned to whisper something to Catra. “Don’t worry, I’ll learn of it on my own so that you won’t need to feel responsible for anything,” He said as the doors opened, sending a cold chill down Catra’s spine.

“Wait—”

“Ah, good! You’re here.” Suddenly she was being cornered and crowded by coworkers before she could question or try to stop him. He probably planned it that way. One of the guys surrounding her practically shoved a tablet with some kind of drawing on it. “Do you think this is an accurate depiction of She Ra?”

“How should I know?” Catra huffed, pushing the tablet away from her.

“Ha! Good one!” They laughed, shoving the tabet back instantly, much to Catra’s displeasure. She tried to step around them so that she could go find Prime and somehow convince him to stop… whatever he was going to do.“Everyone’s seen the videos of the many, many times. You’ve been up close and personal with that self proclaimed ‘hero’, so, naturally, you’d know best her attributes.”

“Oh. That’s—” They cut her off again before she could object.

“So, do you think this is an accurate enough representation based on what you’ve experienced?” Biting back her annoyance, Catra looked down at the image, realizing that she wouldn’t get anywhere otherwise. It was really phony, actually. The digital picture didn’t look anything like Adora— or She Ra— at all. Forget them needing her opinion because she had “experience” or any shit like that; they needed her opinion because they obviously hadn’t even paid the slightest attention to what she was like. Either that or whoever made this was absolutely terrible. It more or less looked like some weird character design from the eighties made entirely from the male gaze.

“It’s a digital model so that we can have more accurate diagnostics. We realize the image doesn’t fit one hundred percent yet, but we’re working on it,” The person who had handed her the tablet explained. At least someone here had eyes and common sense aside from her. Or maybe that would have been a good thing if they didn’t? “Right now, I just need you to verify the information below the image for testing purposes.” Catra scrolled down, finding a bunch of really basic questions, or at least basic if they were doing something like a quality test. It was all about practical skills and common fighting styles and whatnot. You know, stuff that could change. Which gave Catra an idea to try and evade.

“How is any of this going to help? You won’t be able to know what she’s going to do. She’s a real person. It’s going to be completely different in real life than on some screen.” It really was a valid argument. A bunch of statistics wasn't going to help predict shit when it can to a living, breathing, changing human being, especially when it can to impulsive Adora. Catra knew for a fact that, despite Adora’s constant scheduling and exactness, she came up with all of her plans on the spot. Her co-worker, however, did not seem to care too much about that very notable piece of information.

“Just confirm that the information if it’s correct,” They sighed and stomped away, the crown that had initially cornered Catra when she first came in dispersing.

“Adora, you better fucking tell me soon. I think I more than deserve to know with all the shit I’m doing for you here,” Catra hissed under her breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohohoho things are happeninggggg and I'm so exited!! I only have about 10-12 chapters left if I don't change anything so...yeahhh
> 
> Thank you for reading and supporting! Much love! <3


	19. A Visit with Razz

Adora smiled as she drove through the small entrance and a small, quaint, cottage-style home came into view. Today she had decided to follow Catra’s advice and do something besides sitting bored at home complaining about how she couldn’t go to work. Truthfully she should have come here for a visit a long time ago, but she’d clearly been keeping herself painfully busy. Adora felt right at home the moment she stepped out of her car, familiar feelings and pleasant memories flooding her mind. A short, excitable, eccentric looking woman burst through the curtain that she liked to call her screen door and hobbled hurriedly down the path.

“Ah! Adora, dearie! How lovely to see you!” The short woman greeted her.

“Hi, Razz,” Adora greeted in return. “Sorry for showing up announced.” This whole trip had been somewhat impromptu. Adora had gotten the idea earlier that morning and from there she just got in her car and drove.

“Oh, please. Razz knew you were coming.” Adora opened her mouth to question that statement, but she thought better of it.

“You know, I’m not going to question that.” Over the years that Adora had known Razz, she’d grown accustomed to her eccentric ways and learned to just go along with it. There were many questionable things she often said and did, but that’s just Razz. It was comforting to see that she hadn’t changed at all.

“Come in! Come in! You’re just in time for the pie!” Razz exclaimed in an excited rush, dragging Adora by her wrist into the tiny home. She left Adora at the door to begin digging sound in the various piles of clutter scattered across her limited living space. Finally, she triumphantly pulled out two small baskets. Then she shuffled back out the door, tossing one of the baskets at Adora on her way out. Adora caught the basket that had been thrown at her, thanks to her quick impulses, and started after Razz with confusion. “Well, what are you waiting for, dearie? Come on! Those berries won’t pick themselves,” Razz said to her, not bothering to look back as she waved Adora over to follow her.

“I guess we’re picking berries now,” Adora laughed, following her down the trail. “I’m sorry I haven’t come to visit you in a while, Razz. I’ve been kind of busy, I guess. It’s my fault, really.” Adora regretted not coming sooner. She had promised Razz a million times that she would visit soon, but the definition of soon kept on changing and it never happened.

“You’re here now, aren’t you? That’s what counts, isn’t it?” Razz said back to her. That made Adora feel slightly less guilty about it. “Oh, look at the time!” Razz pointed down at her wrist, which was completely bare.

“Uh, Razz? You aren’t wearing a watch,” Adora informed the old woman. Razz snapped her wrist away sharply, as if offended.

“Of course I’m not! Why would I be?” She exclaimed. Adora, once again, didn’t question her. They walked together through the serene area of brush where Razz liked to keep all of her plants, stopping every now and then to pluck some berries off of the bushes. Of course, saying that they were walking together was kind of a scratch with how far behind Adora was. Razz might be older and shorter, but she never let that hinder her speed. She was quick on her feet just as much as she was quick witted. “Oh! Here we are, dearie!” They had come to a small clearing that Adora easily recognized.

“This was always Mara’s favorite place to go when she visited,” Adora said, looking around at the vibrant flowers and bushes and trees.

“Yes, it was. She was a good one, my Mara. Such a lovely soul, she was,” Razz said, reminiscing past memories and smiling fondly. She sighed, then moved on to the bushes to pick more berries. Adora sat down on a weathered stump, taking a deep breath of fresh air. She remembered coming to this clearing with Mara so many years ago. She could still hear her voice, clear as day, laughing. She could still imagine her smile as she talked with Razz.

“I miss her,” Adora admitted softly. Razz left her task, walking over to Adora on the stump. The woman reached up with her small hands to wipe away a stray tear that Adora hadn’t noticed trailing down her cheek.

“Don’t blame yourself for what happened with her, dearie. Mara wouldn’t like that very much, now would she?” Adora couldn’t argue with Razz, especially not about that. Somewhere, amidst all of the convoluted mess of thoughts, in her mind, she knew Razz was right.

“I just feel like there was something I could have done,” Adora huffed, to which Razz scoffed. “Ow!” Adora yelped when the older woman wacked her on the back of her head, letting Adora know that she would be having none of her guilt.

“Nonsense!” She fussed. “Enough of your moping around about things you can’t change. We have a pie to make.” Adora didn’t fight when Razz pulled her up off of the stump and tugged her back the way they came towards the house again.

-

“So, tell me what you’ve been up to, dearie,” Razz said to Adora when they were back at her little cottage, preparing to make some baked goods. “While you fetch me my broom, of course,” she added on.

“Uh, well, I’ve been busy like I said earlier,” Adora told her, walking over to the corner to grab the broom. “Mostly just work.”

“Bah!” Razz huffed, snatching the broom from Adora and lightly hitting her with the end of it to make a point. “You work too much! Take some time to stop and smell the posies.”

“Don’t you mean roses?” Adora questioned.

“That’s what I said,” Razz brushed off as she started sweeping the kitchen floor, or at least trying to in her own way. “What else is in your life besides work?” Adora shrugged, realizing the answer was not much. Then again, there was one thing that she’d been occupied with.

“I met up with an old friend of mine that I haven’t seen in years and we reconnected. I’ve been hanging out with her a lot,” Adora mentioned fondly. Even the thought, even just the mental image of Catra, made Adora giddy with pure glee over remembering that Catra actually liked her.

“Is that all? Just a friend?” Razz looked up at her, raising a suggestive brow towards Adora. Adora’s face heated up. She must have forgotten how easily Razz could read people.

“Well, we might be more than friends, but I don’t really know yet,” Adora answered truthfully, feeling a little embarrassed.

“You don’t know?”

“I mean we’ve kissed and I think the times we’ve eaten together could be considered dates, but we haven’t officially talked or anything like that and I don’t want to pressure her.” Adora was just a little bit scared that she would wake up one day and find out that none of it was real, that it was all a cruel dream. What would be worse than finding out everything wasn’t real, though, would be to know that it was real, but Adora pushed too much or did something wrong and she ruined it. They hadn’t talked about labels or them really, so Adora didn’t know if Catra even wanted to put a label on it. So, as much as she kind of wanted to call Catra her girlfriend, she would wait until Catra said that she was okay with that. “I want to make sure she’s comfortable though. I don’t want to mess anything up.”

“Sounds like it’s pretty obvious to me,” the older woman snarkily commented. She had set her broom aside and was now on a stepstool to reach the entirety of the counter. However, she failed to be able to reach the high cabinets, struggling to stretch her hands up towards an organized basket of ingredients before giving up. “Reach up there and get that for me, dearie.” Adora did, like she always did for Razz, even though the woman had tools to get it by herself and they both knew it. She began mixing various things in a bowl. Adora, as well as Mara in the past, usually let her do this herself since she knew the oddly specific measurements of a sprinkle and a fair amount by heart. Just make sure she was holding the right thing. Speaking of...

“That’s the salt, Razz,” Adora said, quickly pointing out the label of the small container in Razz’s hand before any of it made it into the bowl.

“Oh! Silly me!” Razz laughed, swapping it out for another, almost identical container. Why did Razz keep her salt and sugar in similar containers and next to each other, who knew? “Anyway, I think you should talk to Catra if you’re really that bothered by it.”

“How did you know it was Catra?” Adora hadn’t mentioned a name in the whole conversation, not even unrelated to her whole relationship confusion.

“Didn’t you say?” Adora slowly shook her head. Razz pondered for a few seconds, then shrugged.

“Eh. You used to talk about her all of the time when you were little. You would go on and on and on about this Catra, your little friend.” Adora became flush again. Did she really talk about Catra that much when she was younger? “You’ll have to bring her to visit me one day.”

“I think she’d like that.” Adora hoped she could bring Catra here one day, hoped Catra would want to come here with her. Maybe one day they could come here for little getaways, the two of them. That would be nice.

“And you still don’t know if the two of you are together? Goodness, dearie. You are a mess,” Razz chided teasingly.

“I hope we are,” Adora whispered to herself.

“What was that, dearie? I don’t have my glasses, so you have to speak up.”

“Oh, it was nothing. I— Wait. You don’t need your glasses to hear.”

“Razz knows that, silly girl.” Adora’s phone chimed from her pocket, but Adora ignored it. She was enjoying her time with Razz in this little corner, separated from the rest of the world. She felt selfish for it, but she wanted to hold on to this for just a little while longer. “Your phone is ringing,” Razz said out loud after the third or fourth ring, as if the trill noise wasn’t also obvious to Adora.

“Yeah, I know, Razz.” But Adora didn’t answer it. She didn’t even look at it. The phone kept ringing, again and again. After a few more rings, too many rings, Razz turned her attention away from her pie making to fully face Adora.

“Well, are you going to answer it? Don’t be so rude!” Adora finally brought her phone out to check who was actually calling her, and she was surprised to see Catra’s name. She looked conflicted between the old woman and the name on her phone. “Go, talk! This old woman can survive without you for a couple of minutes,” Razz decided for her, shooing Adora out the door in a timely manner, then retracting back inside to give her privacy.

“Took you long enough to answer,” Catra said when Adora finally accepted the call.

“Sorry, Catra. I wasn’t paying attention to my phone.”

“What are you doing right now? And where are you? I got off of work early, so I dropped by your house, but you weren’t there,” she explained.

“Sorry. I’m visiting Razz today. I probably won’t be back until later tonight,” Adora told her regretfully, thinking of the decently long drive back home.

“There goes my plans to woo you so that I could steal all of your food.” Adora felt kind of bad that Catra had gone out of her usual path to stop by and Adora wasn’t even there.

“If you’re still there you can go in and chill. There’s a spare key under the mat at the door.” She figured Catra was cool to be trusted in her apartment. Even if she wasn’t, Catra could completely trash the place and Adora wouldn’t mind too much.

“A key under the mat? Gee, Adora. Basic much.”

“It’s easy to remember and easy to access!” Catra scoffed at her weak defense.

“How has someone not broken into your house yet? Seriously?” Catra laughed at Adora’s lack of security measures, which she had been teased over by almost everyone she knew by now. “I guess I’ll just have to wait here until you get home then.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“But I want to,” Catra assured defiantly. Adora didn’t try to persuade her differently. She’d been the one to offer in the first place, so Catra could stay there if she wanted to. She just hoped Catra wouldn’t wait for her if it got too late, which it probably would. “I’ll see you when you get home, princess.”  
“See you then. Love you—” Adora slapped a hand over her mouth. The words had just slipped out before she could register what she was saying. She stayed quiet, hoping desperately that Catra didn’t hear that last part.

“What did you just say?”

“See you then. Bye!” Adora had never ended a call so fast. She really just said that. True, they had said it to each other many times before, but things were different now. She did love Catra with all of her heart, but she didn’t know if Catra was okay with her saying it out loud yet. Hopefully, she hadn’t crossed a dangerous line there. Resigning herself from those thoughts and pushing them far back in her mind, Adora shoved the phone back in her pocket and turned to go back to Razz. Except Razz had apparently been peeking around from the door, watching her. “Oh, Razz. I didn’t know you were there.”

“It is good to see your eyes smile again, dearie. I haven’t seen it since our Mara left.” Adora didn’t even realize how long she’d been grinning like an idiot. She couldn’t stop though. Razz seemed fine with that. “Catra makes you happy?” Adora nodded.

“She does,” she said. Catra made her very happy. She always had. “I think I might be in love with her. Is that weird? Is that too soon?” There was a small bubble of anxiety rising in her chest. Was it too early? Was Adora falling too hard too easily? Would Catra be upset if Adora were to say it out loud? So many doubts running through her head.

“Why are you asking an old woman like Madame Razz?” Razz asked her, blowing a puff of air through her nose. “Do you want to be with her?”

“More than anything.” Adora answered earnestly.

“More than you want to work?” Razz raised her brows in question. Now that was a loaded and targeted question, but Adora knew the answer nonetheless.

“Yes,” she said with conviction.

“I think you can find your own answer,” Razz said, smiling. “Come and help me in the kitchen, dearie. Then you can take some pie home to your Catra.” Her Catra. Adora smiled at the thought. Adora’s Catra. She liked that.

-

Adora hadn’t actually expected Catra to take her offer of using the extra key and staying, so it was a surprise when she walked in, threw her stuff down on the floor (except for the pie, which she safely stored in the kitchen), then went to the living room for a bit of a surprise.

“Hey Adora,” Catra mumbled drowsily from the couch as Adora walked past. Adora flinched at the unexpected sound, tensing up into a defensive stance..

“Catra?” Adora eased up when she saw the recognizable face in the dim lighting. She was leaning in an uncomfortable position across the armrest of the couch. The lines on her face, the look in her half lidded eyes, and the drowsiness in her voice indicated that she had been previously asleep.

“No, I’m some random person who broke into your house and fell asleep on your couch,” Catra said sarcastically. “How was the visit?”

“It was good. I’m glad I went down there to see her.” And she was. She still felt a little guilty for not doing it sooner, but she was glad that she finally did go there. Like Razz said, she was there today. That counted for something. Still, she needed to get better about that and try to visit Razz more often. “How was your day at work?”

“It was...work,” Catra grumbled vaguely. She ever so slightly hunched over, a flash of annoyance and frustration temporarily entering her eyes. She very clearly did not want to talk about her work day.

“What have you been up to here?” Adora asked instead.

“Well, I was going to raid your fridge for food but then I passed out on your couch.” Catra groaned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “I guess I was more tired than I thought.”

“Do I need to drive you home?” Adora offered.

“No,” Catra confirmed quickly, maybe a little too quickly, but she corrected herself. “I mean, I was thinking maybe I could stay over tonight.”

“Oh.” Adora blinked in surprise. Welcome surprise, of course.

“I mean, if you’d be cool with that,” Catra tagged on with a casual shrug.

“Oh, yeah! Totally!” Adora nodded enthusiastically “Is that why you’re wearing that instead of your work clothes?” She asked, glancing down at the loose T-shirt and sweatpants that Catra was currently wearing.

“I brought a bag of clothes and stuff with me in anticipation. I was kind of hoping you’d want me to stay.” It was a small gesture, but it meant a lot more. For both of them.

“What? Do you like me or something?” Adora joked to distract from the increase in her heart rate and the 

“Shut up. I’m only here for your food.” Catra joked back lightheartedly.

“Are you tired?” Adora asked, noticing how Catra’s eyelids kept flittering closed as she struggled to stay awake.

“Yeah, a little, but it’s whatever.” A little was only a slight understatement. The unplanned nap surely helped to boost her energy, if only an infinitesimal amount. Adora almost let it go, but then Catra let out a long, compromising yawn.

“Do you want to go get in the bed and go to sleep? It is getting kind of late.” Catra sighed. It was probably the best idea to actually get some sleep, but she had at least wanted to spend a little bit of time with Adora. Not to mention that Adora would probably be up for who knows how long.

“Only if you’ll join me,” Catra presented the compromise. This way, she could spend time with Adora and both of them could get some sleep.

“I’ll get there eventually,” Adora said, trying to excuse herself.

“Not acceptable. Now, so that I can make sure you actually sleep.” Shoot. Adora had been caught. Insomnia and nightmares be damned, she couldn’t say no to Catra.

“Okay,” Adora agreed. Catra smirked, relishing that victory, though she was expecting a lot more fight on Adora’s end. She started to stand up so that they could go to Adora’s bedroom, but something, or someone, interfered before she even made it halfway up.

“Ah! Adora, what are you doing?” Catra yelped when Adora scooped her up in her arms.

“Carrying you to bed, obviously,” Adora answered. She began parading towards the bedroom with Catra in her arms, beaming with pride. Catra rolled her eyes at the little show, but didn’t complain once. Adora gently set Catra down on her bed, flopping down after right next to her. Catra shuffled bit by bit until she was laying on top of Adora. “Comfortable?” Adora asked.

“Not quite.” Catra moved around a little more until half of her body was stretched out across Adora’s. “Okay, now I am.”

“Catra, do you have to lay right there?” Adora complained, though she didn’t actually mind it all that much.

“Can’t hear you. Already asleep.” To further make her point, Catra wriggled in place, comfortably fitting herself to Adora. It wasn’t long after she stilled, curled on top of Adora, that soft little snores came from her. Adora looked down at Catra’s sleeping form. Her eyes were shut gently, partially covered by the hand draped across her head. Her lips were slightly parted, allowing little whistles of air to come out. Any tense muscles in her face were gone, replaced with a relaxed expression. She looked content, and that made Adora happy.

“Goodnight, Catra,” Adora whispered, carefully laying her arm across the snoring girl on top of her. She waited, listening closely to assure that Catra was asleep and wasn’t roused by the movement. Then, she whispered one last thing before drifting off herself. “I love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally going to make Razz more...well, Razz (you know what I mean), but I felt like it would have read too much like dementia and that's some serious emotional torture that I am not okay to write. Like, in the cannon context, I feel like it makes sense and stuff, but it doesn't feel right here.
> 
> In other news, hope everyone is having a good day or night or whatever time! Love you all and thank you for all of your support! <3


	20. Heartbreak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry in advance

The next morning was a sleepy and slow moving one. 

Catra could tell that she had gotten a later start than usual when she woke up from the way the sun was shining through the curtains covering Adora’s massive bedroom window. What she had underestimated, though, was how late of a start that was.

Still groggy from a surprisingly extremely restful sleep, Catra forced herself to sit up, forcing herself to stay awake in turn. As much as her mind and body tugged at her to go right back to sleep, she knew that wasn’t a good idea. At first, she couldn’t even tell what time it was, but, given that Adora was no longer in the bed with her, it was probably time to get up and get ready.

Then she saw the time blinking across Adora’s digital clock across the room.

“Shit!” Catra cursed, now fully awake and in a panic. “I’m going to be fucking late!” She all but threw herself off of the bed, springing into action to get ready. It wasn’t like she was extremely late waking up, but it was a lot later than she had wanted to wake up in order to get to work on time. She had a bad habit of always being late, which was not something she wanted to carry over to her job. That being said, she was currently rushing to get dressed and gather her things back in her overnight bag she’d brought yesterday.

“Adora?” She called out, looking for the blonde throughout the house when no one responded. Her search came to a halt in the kitchen where Adora, though she herself wasn’t there, had left a message for Catra. There was a plate of cooked bacon and eggs next to a large container. Under that was a bright yellow sticky note with Adora’s handwriting scrawled on it messily, as if she was in a hurry.

_Out for a morning run. Didn’t want to wake you, you looked happy. I made some breakfast for you since you like my cooking so much. Also left you a pie I made yesterday in case I’m not back before you leave. -Adora_

That answered some questions. Nevermind the fact that Adora still had wounds that weren’t completely healed and probably shouldn’t be doing any exercise that could potentially make them worse, at least she was safe. Catra would just have to remember to scold her for that later. However, right now, she was on a bit of a time crunch. She opened the container to get a look at the pie, which looked amazing and she would definitely have to thank Adora later, then closed it back and carefully tucked it under her arm. She scarfed down the eggs and bacon as quickly as she could and then drew a small smiley face next to Adora’s scribble on the sticky note before heading out the door. Of course, she made sure to lock the door and return the spare key to its place (which she hoped Adora would change at some point soon).

-

Adora felt bad for lying. I mean, she always did. Not to mention, she was usually bad at it. However, desperate times called for desperate measures, which is why she had to lie and say that she was out jogging in order to not be caught. What she was really doing was fighting a small group of bots only a few blocks from her home. She didn't get an alert for it, just happened to catch wind of it when she was checking her social media and saw people talking about it, which meant that her team probably wasn’t aware of it. So, she obviously had to step in, right? It was her responsibility.

Sure, she’d get in a hell of a lot of trouble if anyone knew she was here. Yeah, maybe she really shouldn’t be doing this when she’s supposed to be resting or whatever. Did any of that really matter right now though? In Adora’s mind, she thought the answer was no, it did not. No, what mattered right now was kicking some mechanical ass and saving the people of Etheria, or at least those of them that lived around here.

“Long time no see, Princess.” Adora resisted the urge to freeze mid-fight when she heard that voice. Catra? What was Catra doing here? Catra was still asleep when Adora left her at the house.

“Uh, yeah. I’ve been, uh, doing more behind the scenes stuff lately. Yeah.” That should do for a cover story for the press “You should leave,” she told Catra, not bothering to look back at her and give anything away.

“I was just about to, but not yet.” In complete disregard for what Adora had just said, Catra came closer to her. She came real close. Seriously, why was she this close? Catra was current right next to Adora— right up on Adora— as if the dangerous robots in their surrounding meant nothing. “There aren’t many of them here, or at least in comparison to the usual, so they were relying on this to be more of a distraction or weakening point. You don’t have to put much into getting rid of them, so don’t show off.” She Ra squinted skeptically. She would have noticed a major vantage point like that, surely. And she was, decidedly, not a show off.

“I don’t think I should assume when it comes to tactical matters,” Adora huffed, maintaining her pride.

“Trust me. I know what I’m talking about,” Catra assured with unwavering confidence in her words.

“I don’t—” Before Adora could utter a protest or defense, Catra had already left her side. She had leapt into action, throwing herself at a bot. A sudden wave of dread filled Adora’s chest at the sight of Catra running towards the massive machinery, the worst scenarios flying through her mind. But, surprisingly, nothing bad happened. The bot, for some reason, didn't go after Catra. It didn’t even seem to register that she was there. Catra, completely unfazed by the lack of reaction, proceeded to grab a brick from the ground and throw it at the thing’s head. The impact of the brick must have done something because the bot sputtered before shutting down completely, falling to the ground limply. Adora stared at the scene and her jaw fell open. Catra walked back over to her with a smirk, swaying her hips cockily.

“There’s a trigger on the base of their head that pretty much puts them out.” She told She Ra proudly.

“I— You— What—” Adora stuttered, still trying to make sense of what just happened. Catra smirked at her confusion.

“Maybe you should keep doing you behind the scenes thing. Wouldn’t want the city’s star hero to wear out, now would we?” Adora felt chastised, even though that wasn’t really the case since Catra couldn’t possibly know that it was Adora under the mask, working when she shouldn’t have been. There was just no way. Still, the look Catra gave her made her feel guilty like she’d been caught. “See you later, princess.” And then she just walked off, like nothing happened.

“I— Okay, I guess.” She didn’t know much else she could say in that moment, still in utter shock and confusion. And maybe a little lovestruck.

-

So maybe giving away that piece of information to Adora wasn’t the best decision. In fact, she had to really hope that no one found out about her little stunt back there for fear of what could happen when she walked in for work today. Hopefully, if the universe even had a little sympathy for Catra, no one had caught her on camera. It was risky, what she was doing, but such was her style. Danger might as well be her middle name.

Still, she couldn’t help but feel a little bit dreadful when she came into work. By now she’d been in her new position long enough to get settled into somewhat of a normal work life. She had even gotten her own little workspace and place to put her things. It had never really done much for Catra before, but it came in handy right now to have a place to keep her bag and the pie Adora had given her. It also gave her a nice moment of rest after walking all the way here. The downside of taking advantage of this was that it made her an easy target for that tall, rich asshole to single her out and corner her. Like he was doing right now.

“I know I’m late. I’m sorry,” Catra said, skipping over that part before he could bring it up to her.

“Oh, it’s no trouble as long as you don’t make it a regular thing. In fact, you’ve arrived at the perfect time. We’ve completed those models you saw on your first day and are preparing to produce them in masses.” It was good that she didn’t get in too much trouble for her tardiness (or anything else for that matter), but that other thing he said kind of overshadowed that relief. Those models. He meant the robots she’d seen desecrate the testing dummies. He meant the robots that were designed to effectively and efficiently kill.

“Sounds like fun,” she lied, trying to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

“After that, I’d like you to contribute a little more than you usually do in discussion. Especially when it comes to your personal experiences with She Ra.” Of course he would fucking want her to spill more, but Catra refused to be an accessory in her girlfriend’s murder.

“I will certainly try, sir.” Like hell she would.

“As you should.” Thorn-in-her-side Prime nodded. “What is that?” he pointed to the container sitting in front of her.

“Uh, something that I didn’t have time to drop off at home this morning. A gift.” Catra purposefully kept her answer short and vague. Though, Prime didn’t seem to get the hint. He kept watching her, waiting for another answer or more information that Catra wouldn’t give. “That’s it,” Catra said with finality, hoping that he might get the message now.

“I see,” He said, giving it a rest at last. “I suppose I’ll take my leave now. Don’t forget about what I’ve said.” Catra just nodded once. As he walked away, she had to resist the urge to hold up her hand to give the tall man a rather unsavory gesture.

Catra did what she needed to do that day, but that’s all she did. She only put in the bare minimum to fly under his stupid radar. The rest of her energy was put into stealthily listening and keeping her eyes peeled for something— anything— that could help her get out or help Adora. She was going to have to do something soon. Real soon.

-

There were many things Catra could have run into on the street as she walked home. She could have gotten robbed or mugged. She could have come across some shitty guy catcalling her, which she’d encountered many times before already. She could have crossed paths with a serial killer. But no. She didn’t run into any of that. She ran into possibly the last thing that she would want to see. See, she heard someone around the corner of a building on her way home. Usually, she’d rely on common sense to drag her away from sketchy situations like that. But something was different this time. She knew that voice curing and panting. It was unmistakable. So, she put logic on the back burner and went to investigate. And the sight made her heart stop.

“Adora?” She spoke into the dark, startling the blonde. Adora was standing there— well, less standing and more so leaning against the brick behind her to keep her upright. Her knuckles were scratched and red. Her outfit, which Catra recognized the gold and white pattern of, was ripped and torn. The previous wounds from the last time Catra had seen her like this weren’t faring well from the red splotch over where they were. Her stupid signature hair poof had fallen out of place, the hair that one filled it now sticking the the mix of heavy seat and blood on Adora’s face. She did it again.

“Catra?” Adora gasped in a ghostly echo. Catra started to back away, shaking her head as she tried to swallow the hard lump in her throat. “Catra, I can explain this,” Adora tried to say, but the damage had already been done. Catra felt... Betrayed? Heartbroken? Terrified? She didn’t really know for sure what she felt. The only thing she did know was the hurt that seeing Adora like this brought to her.

“No. No, you can’t.” Everything came crashing down in waves of unbearably strong emotions. Anger. Hurt. Sadness. Fear, Bitterness. Anger. A lot of anger. Oh, she was mad.

“I swear I can, Catra. I just— I—” Adora stammered, stuttered, spluttered trying to find the words. She wouldn’t ever find the right ones though. How could she? How could she explain this? How could she justify doing this to herself again. She couldn’t. There was no way. It was too much to just pass it off that easily. It was too much to pass it off at all. It was almost too much to handle.

“You what, Adora? Went out to do something dangerous again? Got hurt again?” It wasn’t even a question. Catra knew that’s what happened. Catra knew that’s what she did. She went and made the same fucking mistake as last time all over again. It made her so pissed.

“Catra, it’s complicated.” Adora pushed herself off the wall and limped a few steps closer. Catra put a hand up to stop her.

“Complicated my ass!” She shouted, unable to hold it in any longer. “You keep giving and giving and giving pieces of your soul, and you expect me to be okay with that?! No! Fuck no!” Catra felt herself shaking, whether with anger or pain she didn’t know.

“I have to! I don’t have a choice!” Adora shouted back.

“Yes you do!” Catra screamed. Someone probably heard that given it shook in her chest. “Adora, you have the choice to ask for help! You have the choice to be happy! You have the choice to want to be happy!”

“Catra, you don’t understand. There’s a lot more to it than what I want. I have to be Sh—” Adora almost let it slip, but she caught herself and corrected herself. “I have to be strong. I can’t just stop. That’s not how it works.”

“But you’re still allowed your own life, Adora. You’re still allowed to want.” The bloodied blond squeezed her eyes shut, very clearly holding back tears. They both knew that Adora knew this, but they also both were aware that knowing and believing were two separate things. “What do you want, Adora?” Catra asked, hoping to prompt Adora into believing.

“I— I, um—” As expected, Adora couldn’t answer. Adora didn’t have an answer. Catra sighed out a bitter laugh.

“That’s what I thought,” she said through clenched teeth. She was ready to turn her back on the girl in front of her and stomp off.

“Catra, wait!” Adora cried out. “Please,” She pleaded, her voice coming out in a whimper.

“I can’t keep doing this, Adora! I can’t keep up with this! I won’t stand here and wait for you to get yourself killed!” Catra already had to deal with the dread of her own safety. She already felt nauseous at the daily reminders that any day she could see Adora in the headlines. She couldn’t take seeing the grueling process of watching Adora slowly wither away this close. It hurt like hell just to be talking to her right now. It wasn’t okay. It wasn’t fair. For either of them. “Adora, I am in love with you—” Her voice gave out, the swelling in her throat taking over. Damn, this was hard. But she had to do this. For the both of them.

“Catra…” Adora trailed off. She knew where this was going. She didn’t like it. Catra cleared her throat, regained her composure, and continued.

“I am in love with you, but you need to get whatever the fuck this is together. For both of us.'' Catra turned around sharply, making a point that the conversation was over. “Don’t bother calling unless you’re serious. I won’t wait around for you to choose you stupid duties or some ominous sacrifice over me.” As much as seeing Adora hurt herself hurt Catra, walking away hurt even more. It’s like she got everything she could have ever wanted, but there was something off, something that wasn’t good for her, and so she had to leave it all behind. She needed to do this though.

“Wait! No!” Adora cried desperately. “Nonono, please!” She heard Adora trying to limp after her, then heard her grunt as she tripped and fell onto the cold ground. Catra gathered all of her will not to turn back.

“Bye, Adora.” Maybe they could come back to them someday. Maybe, once Adora got some much needed help and got better about all of this, they could be happy together. But just hoping that she’d get better on her own wasn’t good, wasn’t safe, wasn’t healthy, for her or Adora. She had to do this. That’s what she had to keep repeating to herself on the walk home, then when she stared at her reflection in the mirror for half an hour before actually taking the shower she’d planned, and when she laid awake in her bed, unable to reach a restful state of mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So um....yeah
> 
> Sorry I disappeared for a couple of weeks. I haven't had much time to write between trying to finish up school work, handling some personal stuff, and spending time with the gf. I'm also having some kind of existential crisis about growing up again so that's a thing.
> 
> Also sorry about...all of that. The angst was strong when I was first writing this. It has plot relevance, but I also just sort of wanted some more suffering because who doesn't love some of that! pls don't hate me
> 
> You are all beautiful people! Have a good day or night or week or whatever! <3


End file.
